Rika and Hanyu's Real World Adventure
by Killerbee77
Summary: I turned and found Rena starring dreamily at the stuffed animals on the shelves, a part of me knew that wasn't a good sign. "Rena, don't even think abou-!" "Hau ! So cute! Rena must take it home!" Sigh, Note to self: Never bring Rena to Toy R US, never.
1. Prologue: Wishes

This is a prologue/plot chapter so don't read too much into it. And please bare with me the story gets better. Way better! Enjoy, read and review and all that jazz.

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><p>Prologue: Wishes!<p>

"Err! Stop cheating, damn ….you can't substitute every time I try to hit you!"

"Actually yes I can," I stated, "substitution jutsus' are part of the game therefore I can use them as much as I want."

"I hate you!" He yelled clicking the controller faster trying to hit me was another air-combo attack, which I ended up substituting again for what seemed like the hundredth time.

Yep, It was just another normal Saturday night, and sense it was dark outside and I had nothing else to do today me and my brother Antoine(But I called him Ant for short which was something he hated because it reminded him that he was short for his age) were in my room playing Naruto Shippuden: ultimate ninja storm 2 on our X-box 360. And as of right now I was winning, like always.

I had picked Kabuto Yakushi and Antoine picked Itachi Uchiha.

I could tell Antoine was getting fed up with me but I couldn't help but mess with him, it was just so funny to see his face every time I won.

On the TV, Antone tried to hit me with Itachi's fire-ball jutsu, but once again Kabuto substituted it and appeared behind him. Ants' HP was already in the red and I hit him with a chakra dissection blade from behind, bring his HP down even more to the point that he barely had any, and it gave me some of his chakra orbs. Itachi got up and started gather chakra to use Susanoo. But we can't have that now can we, I want to win this with a perfect score, my life was still at 100% and I planed on keeping it that way.

I clicked another button on the controller, making Kabuto threw an explosive tag knocking Itachi a couple of feet away from him.

I looked over at Ant as he kept muttering, "come on get up Itachi!"

I smirked, this was end game. "I'm sorry to say this Ant, but you lose," I said in a cheery tone. I clicked Y then Y-B and Kabuto laid a scroll on the ground, got one knee, did a hand sigh and poof to Kabuto cadaver clones appeared on both sides of him.

"**Forbidden: Dead soul jutsu!**" The two clones rushed foreword and slashed Itachi with a chakra dissection blade on both sides at the same time dropping his life down to zero, then Kabuto walked pass with and slashed him with his own chakra dissection blade, giving a evil smirk while he did.

A huge **player 1 wins **appeared on the TV screen.

I looked over at Ant with a huge grin on my face and said, "So Ant, was that considered over kill?"

"AHHH!" Antoine gave a yell in outrage and slammed the controller down hard, luckily for me there was a sheet in front of my bed or it probably would have broke. "You fuckin' cheater! You can't substitute every time I try and hit you!"

"Yes I can, it's part of the game, so I can do it as much as I want ...right Ant," I said smirking at Antoine's anger.

"You know what..." he slammed his hand down on the mattress, "FUCK THIS GAME!"

*Sigh* cursing this loud was something he probably shouldn't have done, the door was wide open not only that but my older sister, Kim, was right down stairs in the kitchen cooking dinner, and the kitchen was right next to the stairs. So she pretty much heard everything Ant said.

"Antoine, watch your mouth! What did I tell you about cursin'!" I heard her yell up stairs, Antoine looked at me with a 'this-is-all-your-fault' look.

"Kim it wasn't my fault, Kevin was cheating on da game and I got mad! It's his fault!" He yelled back.

"I don't care just don't do it again, or I'll be washing your mouth out with soap," she stopped a moment before continuing, "...now both of you come eat before I change my mind and you both go hungry!"

Antoine got up and started walking out the room muttering curse words under his breath, I stayed behind to put the game and stuff away.

Now my room was really that big, I mean it was a pretty descent size but it was still small compared to my sister's room. I had four dressers, 2 small ones, 1 tall one, and 1 wide one that had a mirror on top of it. I had a queen sized bed near my bedroom door with one of my small dressers close by it. And for the finishing touches I had 2 book small cases, one held my normal reading books and the other had my favorite books of all, Manga!

I had all different types of Manga. Naruto, Hell girl, Elfen lied, Bleach, Inuyasha, D-N-Angel and Blood plus but my all time favorite was….Higurashi no naku koro ni.

I've seen Anime before and fell in love with it almost instantly, after five episodes I was completely hooked on it. Now don't get me wrong I am not an Otaku, I've just always been into horror-mystery books …hell most of the normal novels I read are horror-mystery books. But there was just something about Higurashi that drew me in faster then I could blank.

It took me only about 10 minutes to straighten up my room, I looked around the room and nodded in approval. "Yep, this will do just fine for now." I went over and picked up my Naruto game and put it on the top shelf in my closet with my other games before I headed down stairs myself. Hopefully Antoine wouldn't still mad at me over the game. He could be a pretty sore loser sometimes.

**Part 2-Start**

When I got to the kitchen. Antoine and Kim were already sitting at the table eating dinner. I sat at my seat at the table, which was right next to Ant, and looked at the food that in front of me. There were 4 bowls on the table, one was filled with shredded cheese, one was filled with lettuce, and the other ones were fill with tomatoes and ground beef and there was a tray full of taco shells.

This only meant one thing...taco night!

"Tacos!" I gave a cheeky grin and reached over the table grabbing three taco shells from the tray and put them on my plate. I filled each shell with shredded cheese, lettuce and ground beef. I didn't really care much for tomatoes, I never really like them much anyways.

"*Crunch* So ~Kev, what took you so long gettin' down here?" Kim asked taking another bite of her taco.

I took a bite of my own taco and answered her, "I was cleaning my room, **someone** decided to throw a temper tantrum earlier because they got their ass kicked in Naruto ...again."

"You know that isn't what happen! You cheated!" Antoine looked at Kim, while pointing his finger at me, "and how come he can say curse words but I can't?"

Kim just shrugged her shoulders and answered plainly. "Technically, ass is not a curse word, I can stand that but I can't stand a 13 year old dropping the F bomb 2 times a second."

"I'm not 13! I'm 14 ...get it right, Kim!" He yelled back.

"Please boy, you won't be 14 until July, you've got a whole month to go, shorty."

"Can you please stop calling me that?" Antoine whined.

"~Surrrre, I'll stop, when you grow 2 more inches," Kim responded smirking, putting up her middle and index fingers.

I chuckled silently as Ant grumble under his breath and went back to eating his food, I looked over at Kim and smiled.

I really enjoyed nights like this because Kim was usually still at work during this time, she apart of the Philadelphia police department or PPD for short, so she spent most of her time patrolling around south Philly at night, but before she became a cop she was apart of the Marines.

Kim was a very beautiful women and anyone who knew her would tell you that, she had short brownish/black hair that came down just above her shoulders, light brown skin, brown eyes and a hour glass figure like my late mother. Plus ...she was a major, major tom boy and rarely wore anything girly like dresses or skirts. Not to mention her love for knives and firearms.

Now Antoine; …well lets just say he's the trouble maker of the family, he couldn't go one day without doing something he wasn't supposed to. He had brownish/black hair in dreadlocks that came down a little bit past his neck, he was about 5ft or 5ft3 and his eyes were dark brown and he always wore a kind smile on his face. Other then being a trouble maker his other hobbies were martial arts and basketball.

And me well, I was just your average guy, my name was Kevin but most people in know just called me Kev for short. I got most of my looks from my grandfather on my mom's side of the family who was Native America. I had brown eyes, and brown skin, and short black hair, that was actually a little longer then my sister's hair until it got cut. I didn't really have any other hobbies besides reading Manga and playing video games.

After I was finished eating I put my dishes in the sink. "Oh yea Ant, just so you know it's your turn dishes," he looked up at me with an annoyed look on his face.

"I know that," Antoine muttered.

"~of course you do, I was just making sure."

I walked out of the dinning room and sat on the couch in front of the TV. There wasn't really anything on so I decided to turn to Dane Cook's stand up on comedy central. It was really funny especially the part when he talked about the Kool-aid man, about 30 minutes into the show I yawned and got up.

"Well that's enough laughs, a guy needs his rest." I clicked the off button on the remote and was about to head up stairs when the doorbell rang.

"Ah damn it, and right when I was about to sleep!" I walked over to the front door and looked out the peep hole, I couldn't really tell who it was but I could tell it was a lady. Then I remember the peephole got broken, I forgot how though. Who in the hell would be here at 12am anyway?

"Who is it?" I asked suspiciously, I didn't know who it was but I knew getting visits at this time of night in this neighborhood usually meant trouble.

"Who does it sound like Kevin?"

Wait a minute! I know that voice anywhere!

I opened the door and came face to face with the women I hadn't seen for the past month and a half.

"Grandma!" I said in a happy tone.

"Hehe, the one and only, so ...can I come in."

"Yeah of course, or course," I step to the side and let my grandma walk in, then I closed the door behind me and locked it.

"Antoine, Kim! Grandma's back home!" I called into the dinning room. After a second or two they came walking out of the dinning room with similar smiles on their face.

"Grandma! It's nice to have you back!" Antoine said, as he ran up and hugged her. "So how was your trip? Was it fun?"

"Yes ...it was every, enjoyable," she then looked over at Kim, "It's nice to see your at home Kim, I actually came here first because I wanted to check on the boys, I thought you'd be at work today."

Kim walked up to Grandma and gave her a hug, she had to lean down slightly because she was taller then her, then she pulled away smiling. "It's nice to see you too Grandma, but why are you back home so early? …You said you'd be spending the next few months in Indian."

"Well I was …." Grandma then patted Antoine on the head. "But I didn't want to miss my grandson's birthday. Actually speaking of birthdays, I brought some gifts back with me."

"You know Grandma, you don't have to bring us back gifts every time you go on a trip." I said.

Kim nodded and added her own say in it, "he's right you don't have to keep spending money on us all the time. Save some for yourself some times and-."

"Yes, yes ...we've been through this before Kim and what do I always say?" Grandma asked smirking slightly.

Kim signed and answered in a annoyed tone. "What you say go's into one ear and out the other."

"Exactly, know come along Kevin. I need you to help me get these things out the car."

"Okay sure, no prob."

I follow her out the house to the car, which was a dark blue Lincoln continental. it was dark out and the only light out at this time of night were the street lights. The roads were empty and there wasn't anybody outside ...well that's if you didn't count the people who hang out on the block, down the street by the bar.

Grandma opened the backseat of her car, inside there were 3 boxes. There was one big box with air-holes on top of it, 1 smaller box in yellow gift wrap, a medium sized box in army green gift wrap.

"Kevin, you get the big box and the medium sized box. And I'll get the small one, okay?"

I nodded and grabbed the boxes I was instructed to, my Grandma grabbed the other smaller one, then we walked back into the house after she'd closed and locked the car doors.

We put all the boxes on the couch, and just as I predicted the first one to ask which ones belonged to who was Antoine. "Which ones mine?"

"Wait a moment Antoine," my Grandma said sternly, as we put all the boxes on the couch.

I wasn't going to lie I was pretty excited even though I didn't really show it, but I was also pretty scared too. Why was I scared you might ask? Well lets just say my Grandma had a habit of bringing home some pretty strange and supernatural stuff, like this one time when I was in elementary school she had taken a trip to Jamaica to visit a old friend and when she came back is gave me a ...old Voodoo spell book. At first I laughed about it, I thought it was a fake book that would never work, but man was I wrong about that.

One day I got fed up with some of the bullies at my school and my curiosity got the best of me, I was only 10 years old and I was mad so I decided to try one of the spells on one of the bullies that picked on me, which it happened to be more of a curse then a spell. But ...the next day the one that I _cursed_ came into school with a broken arm, and that's what I wanted to happen. Ever sense that day I've been cautious about anything my Grandma gave me. No matter how small it was.

"Okay so what did you bring back this time?" I asked curiously.

She smiled and moved the big box with air holes onto the floor. "This box right here is for Antoine sense his birthdays coming up next month."

Antoine didn't waste any time tearing the box open to get to what was inside. "Noo waay~! Kevin look what Grandma got me!" he stuck his hands in the box and pulled out a small kitten, that looked like it was about 3 or 4 months old. "Thank you Grandma, I always wanted a cat!"

"Well I hope you can take care of it, I don't want a dead cat smellin' up the house." Kim said bluntly, "you do remember what happened to your hamster Jim, right?"

"Hey that was different! Besides this is a cat so it will be easier to take care of!" He looked at the cat in his arms and smiled. "Now what should I name you, hmm~? I know I'll name you fluffy!"

"Your not naming her fluffy, Ant," I said shaking my head.

"And why not? Fluffy is an okay name for her."

"No ...it's not."

"Yes it is, it's my cat so I can name it what I want!"

I rubbed my temple in frustration, there was no way I was letting him name that cat Fluffy. It's too over used, not to mention ugly.

"Okay what about this, if I can pick a name that sounds better then Fluffy, that's what we'll call her from now on, deal?"

"Hn ...fine but I'll doubt you'll find one," He answered in a cocky tone. I mean really there are hundreds if not thousands of names that sound better then Fluffy, "But nothin' Japanese." Damn it!

"Okay how bout' ...Emily!"

"Nope."

"...Betty!"

"No."

"..Sara!"

"Nada."

"...Ichigo?"

"I said nothin' Japanese." Damn!

I walked over and looked at the cat in his arms, it was a black cat but it a purplish tint to it in the light. It's eyes were also a kinda blueish/purple color too.

...Then it hit me, there was only one endless witch that this kitten reminded me of and her name was...!

"Bernkastel."

Antoine looked up at me and blinked a few times, "what did you say?"

"Huh? Oh nothing I was just thinking out loud." I answered.

"Yea ...but what did you say?" He asked.

I sighed and answered him. "I said ...''Bernkastel''," I already knew he wasn't going to name it that but even so-.

"What kind of name is it?"

I looked at him in slight surprise that he actually wanted to know more about the name. "Well actually I don't know much about the name beside the fact that it German," I then turned to my Grandma, who had been listening to the conversion this whole time. Maybe she knew more about the name. "Grandma, you've been all over the world ...do you know anything bout' the name Bernkastel by any chance?"

"Hmm ...if I remember correctly Bernkastle is the name of a well known wine-growing center in Germany called Bernkastle-Kues, their wine is very good, the finest in my book. Maybe, I should buy some next time I go to Moselle valley."

Antoine lifted the small cat over his head and smiles, "Bernkastle ...hmm? You know what I like the way that rolls off the tongue! Well welcome to the family Bernkastle, but I'll call you Bern for short. the names sorta long."

"Oh my god! Grandma where did you get this!" We all looked over and saw my sister had already opened her gift. And in her hands as I expected was ...a gun.

"What are you so happy about? It's just a gun..." Antoine said to her as he pet his new cat, Bern.

Kim looked at him as if he was crazy. "Just a gun! Do you know what this is?"

"No, but it's still just a gun."

"That's not the point ...this right here is a 1930s Beretta M1935, it was used during world war 2 by the Italian army. They don't even make these anymore. Thank you Grandma."

"Your welcome Kim, now Kevin here's your gift." Grandma handed me a small box with yellow gift wrap on it. What supernatural thing did she get me this time? At this point I really wouldn't be surprised.

"Well go ahead Kevin! Open it, open it!" Antoine chanted.

I sighed as I started undoing the gift wrap. What did she get me this time? I mean this box is pretty small but it made no difference to me, there was still no telling what it could do. Whatever it was.

I lifted it out the box and starred at it... it fit perfectly in my right hand. It was small, about the size of a child's hand but it was hairy, really, really hairy, sorta like a monkeys hand but …I still wasn't sure. "Umm, Grandma ...whats this?"

"That Kevin is a monkey's paw." My Grandma answered smiling.

"Wait ...so you got me a fake paw."

"Oh no your completely wrong Kevin, that paw your holding is 100% real."

My right hand started to twitch as if telling to drop the paw right then and there, "Wait so …this thing that I'm hold ...is a **real **dead monkeys paw, you mean the thing that grants wishes and all that jazz."

"Yep, infused with Chinese black magic to make your wishes extra strong."

I became nervous and my hands became sweaty, I really wanted to take the paw and throw it in the trash. But, I didn't want to hurt my Grandma's feels. I could take the Voodoo spell books and hunted dolls, but this. This was just too much!

"So do you like it?" She asked innocently.

I stayed silent for a while before giving a nervous chuckle and nodded. "Hehe, y-yeah. It's the b-best gift I've ever gotten. Thank you Grandma"

"Your very welcome Kevin, well I best start getting home. A old lady needs her rest ya know."

"Okay ...thanks again for the gift Grandma and remember if anyone tries any use the taser I gave you," My sister said still eying her new gun.

"I'll be sure to keep it close, " my Grandma nodded and picked up her purse, walking to the door then she turned back to me looking like she had forgotten something. "Oh yea, Kevin I almost forgot."

"Yea?"

"The man who sold me that paw said you have to be really specific when you make a wish, or it might backfire on you."

"Uh ...I'll keep that in mind."

"I'm sure you will, well good bye everyone I'll see you later, " she said walking out the door.

"Okay bye Grandma!" then the door shut.

Kim looked down at her wrist watch and yawned, "I don't know about you guys, but it's 1 o'clock in the morning and I've got a few hours before I have to go to work so ...just make sure you clean up any mess you make while I'm a sleep." She then put her gun back in the box, walked up the stairs, and I heard her room door slam shut.

"Soo, does that thing really grant wishes?"

Me and Antoine both looked at the paw, it was pretty hard to believe that something so small could do anything. But seeing as my Grandma brought it back I didn't have a hard time believing it. "I don't know it might work ...but I think it would be better to just put it in the back of my closet with all the other stuff Grandma gave me."

"Aw come on, stop being such a bitch."

"Ant," I said in a warning tone. "What did sis say about cursin'."

"What, it's not like she can hear me, damn. But I still think you should try it out ...ya know just in case."

I sighed, I really didn't want to even try it but if it did work. What would I wish for? "Okay so what would you wish for, Ant?"

"Uhh, lets see. Money, wait how about we wish for Obama to win the election twice in a row."

We both laughed loudly and sat on the couch, afterward we sat in silents for a while ...until Antoine talked again. "Well if your that worried about wishin' for real world stuff, wish for something fake, you know something that would never come true."

"Yeah, like what?" I asked.

"Um lets see, in that Manga you read ...uh what was it called When They Cry or some shit like that."

My eye twitched a little, I really hated it when he talked about my Manga like that. "What about it?"

Antoine looked at me and smiled still petting Bernkastel. "Well there was a girl that always got killed in it, what was her name? Rita or something?"

"You mean Rika."

"Yeah Rika! Why don't you wish for something like ...I wish Rika didn't died or something."

I looked at the paw and sighed, "alright then I'll wish for something even better then that," I held the paw up and spoke my wish. "I wish …Rika Furude could be sent to a world were she could live without fear of being killed!"

I don't where those words came from, maybe it was just me feeling bad for her, or maybe I was just playing around, or maybe ...it was both? But two things started to happened. First: there was a weird feeling coming from the paw...sorta like the muscles in the hand were moving! Second: I notice the paws index finger started to move inward. Until it was bent like it was trying to make a fist!

I felt my heart skip a beat a the site, I looked at Antoine and he looked back at me. "D-d-did you see that? It just moved."

"Yeah, t-that's some scary stuff bro." He got off the couch and started walking up stairs, with a scared looked on his face. "I don't know what freaky shit Grandma gave you, b-but just keep it away from me!" Then I heard his door slam.

Now it was just me and the monkey paw, there was no way in hell I was putting this in my room after what I saw. So I decided ...to put in on the TV stand.

I walked up started walking up stairs, before I got to the middle step I turned and took one last look and the paw, then I sighed and made my way up to my room. This was just one more thing to add to my collection of freaky and supernatural things.

Little did I know the wish I made would change my life forever.

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><p>Okay now I know this prologue was sorta long and nothing happened in it but give me a chance here, I promise it gets better! Anyway Rika and Hanyuu will be in the next chapter, which I'm working on right now.<p> 


	2. Chapter 1:Best Breakfast Ever

Well here's chapter 1, it took me like 2 days to think of a way to introduce Rika and Hanyu but I think I got it, now its smooth sailings from here on out. And the chapters will be coming out way faster then before! Anyway, *sigh* lets start the chapter.

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><p>Chapter 1:Best Breakfast Ever!<p>

I woke up to a loud thud coming from down stairs, it sounded like it came from the living room. I let out a groan and sat up, rubbing my eyes tiredly. "What the hell is Kim doing? It's way too early for this," I muttered to myself.

I looked over at my clock ...it read eight-forty seven am. So just from that alone I knew it wasn't Kim, because she leaves for work at seven o'clock in the morning, so there was only one other person in the house that it could be ...Antoine.

Now, I wasn't really a morning person, and I had a hard enough time getting up for school during the weekdays as it is. Which is why I usually sleep the day away on Sundays. But Ant' was the only one who was up at this time, so he always made lots of noise ether watching Sunday morning cartoons or practicing his martial arts.

I threw my legs over the side of the bed and slipped into my Nike flip-flops. "Why does he do this every Sunday," I yawned and wiped the crust out my eyes, then I started walking to the door, almost tripping over my sneakers during the process. I'm really going to kill Antoine for waking me up.

I opened the door and looked down the small hallway, there were three doors, the one at the middle with a big 'Keep-Out' sign on it was Kim's room and the other door at the end of the hall was Antoine's room and the stairs were right next to that.

I walked down the hall barely making a sound, I walked pass Antoine's room and heard the sound of soft snoring coming from his room. I cracked the door open a little and looked in to see Ant' snuggled up next to his cat, Bernkastel, sleeping peacefully.

So the noise didn't come from Antoine. Then ...who was down stairs in the living room? Kim was at work and Ant' was sleeping. So maybe it was a robber or a serial killer! If that was the case there was no way I was going down stairs without some type of protection.

I walked back to my room and looked I my closet for anything that could be used as a weapon, I ended up finding my old aluminum baseball bat from when I used to play in the little league. I took a couple of practice swings making sure not to hit anything in my room. "Think you can just run up in my spot do ya, well I hope your prepared for a Keiichi style beat-down."

I walked out to the hall and slowly crept down the stairs one step at a time, doing my best not to make a sound. When I got to the last step there wasn't anyone in site. I looked around, my bat held tightly in my hands, Everything was still the same and nothing was missing but ...there was something on the floor in front of the couch. I tip-toed over to the front of the couch.

Then I hopped out, bat raised ready to swing it down on the unfortunate criminal, then I stopped in mid-swing when a voice yell out.

"Don't hurt Rika!" I was taken by surprise when I felt a cold chill run up my spine, it was as if something really cold passed right through me. I blinked a few times looking ahead In front of me were ...two cute little girls.

They both looked to be eleven or twelve, the first girl was unconscious and had on a green sundress, with a white bow in the front and white sandals, and long blue hair. Which was weird, what parent lets their child dye their hair blue.

And the second girl was even weirder, she looked translucent to the point where I could see right through her and she looked like she was dressed as a Shinto shrine maiden or something She also had purple hair and …horns?

I was more curious about the horns then anything, they looked real. A little too real. Not to mention she looked like a Japanese ghost with the whole miko outfit.

...but, I also couldn't shake the feeling that I'd seen these two before. Maybe I've seen them somewhere downtown? But that still didn't answer my first question, what the hell were they doing in my house?

I starred at the horned girl, who stood protectively in front of the blue haired girl."Who are you? What are you doing in my house?"

"Wait ...you can see me? Well T-that doesn't matter right now, I wouldn't let you hurt Rika!" I felt a shiver go up my spine as I looked into her eyes, they were a glowing red and she looked angry. Very, very angry! Oh yeah, did I mention she was flowing like four inches off the ground. Weird.

I sighed and literally looked through her to the blue haired girl. "Hey, you alive in there! You need to get your friend," I walked passed horned girl, and was about to poke the blue haired girl with my bat. But, the miko clad girl got in front of me again.

"Stay away from her!"

"Look, I have intention of hurting your friend."

"Then why were you about to hit her with-with that," She said pointing towards the bat in my hands.

"Because, I thought she was a robber or something," I threw the baseball bat to the side, it made a loud echoing sound when it landed, "there you happy now? I'm not going to hurt her, horns."

Her eyes stopped glowing and she gave me a hurtful look, I probably said something I shouldn't have."Auauau~, my names not horns, it's Hanyu!"

"Sure Hanyu, now-," I paused for a moment. "Wait ...did you just say, Hanyu?"

She nodded. My mind slowly started to connect the dots, I didn't notice it before but she did look a lot like Hanyu from _When They Cry_, and she had the voice, purple hair and horns to go with it. C-could this girl really be Hanyu? But how could she even be here?

...There were so many question brewing in my mind. This isn't making sense to me, there's not even a logical explanation for this. But I needed answers, I knew that for sure.

"S-so your name's really, Hanyu?"

"Yes, it is."

"Okay ...well Hanyu, I'm going to need you to answer some questions, are you okay with that?" I asked.

She nodded and seem to relax a little but she still had her guard up. "Okay, that girl behind you, you said her name was Rika, right?"

"Yes."

"Is her last name Furude by any chance?"

"Yes, but how did you know that, I never told you her surname?" She asked, I could tell she was starting to get a little suspicious of me.

"I'll answered that in a moment, now I really don't want to ask this but...how many times has Rika died and how many worlds has she been to?"

Hanyu gave me a look of shock and surprise at the question."Au au, auauau...W-w-what do you mean by that?"

...And, that's Checkmate.

I sighed, then smiled at her, "There's no need to lie to me Hanyu, I already know about you and Rika's game with fate and trying to break the endless cycle of June, nineteen-eighty three," from her reaction alone I could already tell that my suspicions were correct.

"But how do you know all of this? We've never seen you before in any of the previous worlds!"

"Like I said before, I'll tell you in a moment. But first ...you should probably get Rika off the floor, she could get a headache sleeping like that."

Hanyu gave me a nervous smile, "Auauau, I would if I could, but ...I can't touch anything in this form, do you …mind helping her out?"

"I guess not, it's no problem," I walked past Hanyu and lifted Rika up bridle style and laid her on the couch.

Yep, that pretty much answered my questions. This miko clad ghost girl was really Hanyu Furude and her blue haired friend was Rika Furude. But that still doesn't explain why she in my world, for one they were fictional characters. The only way they could have ended up here is ...The monkey paw! Could that wish I made last night really have worked?

I sat on the end of the couch and pondered the thought, Grandma said something yesterday about the paw before she left. What did she say again, hmm~?

…Oh yeah, she said the wishes I make have to be specific or they could back fire on me, and yesterday when I played around and made that wish I said 'I wish …Rika Furude could be sent to a world were she could live without fear of being killed' but I didn't say which world. I wasn't specific about it, and she ended up in this world ...the real world. But, then why was Hanyu here? And how was I going to explain this to Kim?

I rubbed my temple when I felt a migraine coming on, I was thinking to hard about this. They're here and that's all that matters right now. The first thing I have to do is explain things to Hanyu then worry about explaining it to Rika when she regains consciousness.

I got off the couch and looked over at Hanyu, who was still watching Rika sleep. "Hanyu, come with me, I'll explain everything over breakfast." I motioned her to as I walked towards the kitchen.

She gave me a confused looked but followed away, "...breakfast?"

"Yeah, believe it or not. I do have a little brother to feed, and plus Rika might be hungry when she wakes up. So I'll fix somethin' for her too."

"Uh, Well thank you for your hospitality, umm ...you never told me your name," Hanyu said shyly.

"Oh~ how rude of me," I turned to her and smiled giving a dramatic bow. "My names Kevin, but you can call me Kev' if you want."

Hanyu smiled and bowed also, "thank you for your hospitality, Kevin-San."

It felt weird having 'San' placed at the end of my name, but at the same time it made me feel sorta respected in a way. Hmm~ I wonder ...maybe I should have Antoine start calling me 'Nii-San', but ...he probably won't do it. He would most likely rather die then call me that, especially outside.

**~ ~ ~(Part2)~ ~ ~**

Hanyu floated over my shoulder watching me as I cooked the last bit of breakfast. Though, I could honestly say it was weird having someone looming over me like this. "-But I didn't really expect you two to really end up here, it's not logical, not to mention it should be down right impossible. Even with a monkey paw or any other types of items that grant wishes." I threw a few more pieces of beacon on the pan, getting the satisfying sizzle I wanted to hear.

I explained to Hanyu how she and Rika got here. But, I left out the fact that they were just Anime/Manga characters in this world, she ...or even Rika for that matter might not handle it well knowing people read and watch their struggles for entertainment.

"But, there is a way to send us back, right?" Hanyu asked.

I nodded. "Yeah, I think so, I could use the paw again to wish you guys back home. but, that might back fire and send you somewhere else ...like mars or another planet."

"Au, auauau …B-but if we don't go back, and Rika's dies here. I don't know if I can start a new world."

I turned to her and stared at her. "You know, I doubt Rika will die here, but, what do you mean?"

"W-w-well my powers ...they still work. But, it takes more effort to use them for some reason."

I looked at her, nodding in understanding, "but you can still use them right."

"Yes, but-."

"GOOD MORNING WORLD!"

I jumped slightly, almost burning myself on the hot stove at the sudden shout and Hanyu let out a surprise scream and disappeared suddenly, although I have no idea where to. I turned around and saw Antoine grinning smugly. "Antoine, you dumb-ass brat!" I walked over and hit Antoine on the head with my fist, not too hard, but hard enough for him to feel some pain.

"Ow~ what was that for!" Antoine asked as her rubbed the top of his head, "I usually don't scare or even surprise you, and ...you screamed like a bitch just now!"

"Shut up, you almost made me burn myself, brat!" I yelled, hurrying over to the stove cutting off the beacon before it could burn. "And that wasn't me."

"Oh really, then who was it then? I don't see anyone else here," he said smugly, "and who's blue?"

"Blue?"

"Ya know, The girl out sleeping on the couch with the blue hair, who is she?"

I thought for a moment, should I tell Antoine about this? I don't really know how he would react to this. Maybe I should, I mean, he was there when I made the wish on the paw. But still, he might do something stupid like telling his friends or worst …post it on _Facebook_.

"So are you going to tell me?" He asked impatiently.

I sighed, if I didn't tell him now then he wasn't going to let this go, plus he's already seen Rika and he's bound to see Hanyu at some point. "Okay, lets get one thing clear, you can't tell anyone what I'm about to tell you, understand?"

"Okay, then I'll just post it-."

"And, no _Facebook_ either! No, _MySpace_ and no _Twitter_! Understand that, Ant'?"

"Aww~ fine you win, I won't tell anyone."

I smiled and stuck my finger pinky finger out. "Promise between brothers."

He nodded and hooked his pinky with mine, "promise between brothers," Antoine said, he was really bad at keeping secrets but he always kept his promises. That one good thing I could say about him.

We unhooked our fingers, I smiled knowing Antoine wouldn't tell anyone now. "Okay ...Antoine you remember that wish I made last night right?"

"Yeah."

"Well ...it sorta worked, that girl out on the couch is Rika from the_ Higurashi_ series," I said, and surprisingly all Ant' did was blink a few times then shrugged his shoulders.

"I can honesty say I'm not surprised," He said lazily, sitting at the table looking at the food. "You know Kev', you've really out done yourself this time."

"Huh?" I looked on the table, I made a lot of beacon, eggs, a tray full of chocolate chip pancakes, fifteen cinnamon buns and orange juice. I didn't mean to make this much food, I guess I was so focused on talking to Hanyu that I didn't notice.

I sighed and looked over at Antoine, who had already started taking food and putting it on his plate. "So your really not surprised bout' any of this?"

"Hell naw! Why should I be with all the weird shit Grandma gives you," He answered, about to eat a cinnamon bun.

"Soo~ would you be surprised if I said she's not the only one who was wished here?"

He stopped in mid-bite and looked at me, "there's someone else here?"

"Yeah, pretty much."

"Who is it! Is it bat-boy, cleaver-girl, trap-master, or thing-one and thing-two?"

"Okay, I know who the others ones are but, who's thing-one and thing-two?"

Antoine bit into his cinnamon bun and smirked, "ya know, the two green hair chicks."

"Oh~ you mean Mion and Shion, why'd ya call them that?" I asked.

He shrugged and answered, "I don't know, it just sorta fit for some reason ...So which one is it?"

"It's none of the characters you mentioned, I'll tell you that, it's actually Hanyu."

"Who the hell's, Hanyu?"

I smacked my head, I completely forgot he was still in _Tatarigoroshi-hen_ and never got to _Kai_ yet, but he did see her before, I think. "Well you'll remember when you meet her," I looked around the room for any sign of the horned miko, "where is she anyway?"

"Auau~, auau... Rika slow down you just woke up!"

I then heard a loud thud come from the living room, I guess that was Rika.

Antoine kept on eating his food and calmly said, "looks like blue's awake."

"Yea, I guess so."

I walked out into the living and found Rika face down on the floor and Hanyu was close by trying to help her.

"Auauau, Rika are you okay?" Hanyu asked, with the look of worry on her face.

"I'm fine, Hanyu ...where are we?" Rika asked getting off the floor, her back was turned to me.

"You happen to be in my house," I said, Rika turned around and looked like she was ready for a fight or something. Although I couldn't blame her I was pretty much a stranger to her, not to mention I heard she was kinda cynical.

"Rika, it's okay, this is Kevin, the one I told you about," Hanyu said convincingly.

Rika looked at me for a moment, then smiled cutely and her aura went from serious and mature, to cute and childish, I always wondered how she did that but I could ask later.

"Mii~ thank you for being so kind, I hope I wasn't too much of a burden sir," She said cutely.

"No it wasn't problem at all," I smiled, I always loved her childish side, though, I liked her mature side more, but seeing her in real life it was hard to choose between cuteness and awesomeness. "Well Rika, you must be hungry, would you like something to eat?"

"No, I'm fin-"

I chuckled when I heard her stomach growl loudly, she blush and shifted her weight on her feet looking look a little embarrassed. Could this girl get any cuter...?

"Maybe just a little bit," She said shyly.

I smiled and walked towards the kitchen, "Well follow me, there's plenty of food to go around, besides I think I made to much while I was talking to your friend."

Rika and Hanyu followed me closely, "what friend?"

"You know, Hanyu."

"You mean ...you can see her?" She asked surprised.

"Yep, just as clearly as I see you, does that make me special or something?" I asked smiling.

"Mii~Yes it does sir, it makes you very, very special," Rika said smiling.

When we got back to the kitchen, Antoine was still sitting at the table reading this months _GameInformer_ magazine, eating to his hearts content. I had no idea where he got the magazine but I didn't really bother to ask.

"Antoine," he turned around still chewing on a piece of beacon, "This is Rika and Hanyu. Girls …this is my little brother Antoine."

Antoine smiled, giving a small wave. "Yo!"

"It's nice to meet you, sir," Rika said giving a bow.

Hanyu gave a bow also, "it's nice to meet you, Antoine-San."

Antoine walked over and leaned in to get a closer look at Hanyu, who looked at him nervously, at first I thought he was going to say something about her being translucent, maybe her horns or the fact she was floating a few feet off the ground but he seemed to look past all of that.

"So your Hanyu, huh?"

"Y-y-yes!"

"Hmm~ oh yeah I remember you know, your the one who sings that song I heard one time, what was it called again …_Nano Desu_, I think?" Antoine said in thought then shrugged his shoulders, "anyway it's nice to meet you, Hanyu, and you know up close ...your horns look kinda cute."

Hanyu blushed, her face was as red as a tomato. "Auauau~Y-y-you really think so?"

"Hell yeah I do, you've got to be the most cutest gir-!"

"That's enough smooth talkin' player!" I said moving Ant' away from Hanyu, "just go back to eating."

"Fine, I was just telling her what I thought," He said turning around.

"Sure bro, sure, what ever you say. Anyway, lets take a seat and dig in." I said, Rika nodded and we sat down in our seats. I just grabbed some food and started eating, but Rika clapped her hands together and said. "Itadakimasu!" Before taking a cinnamon bun off the tray and eating it smiling, Hanyu was smiling also.

This was like a dream come true, I mean how many people can say they ate breakfast with their favorite Anime/Manga characters. No one sane I'll tell you that right now.

* * *

><p>Chapter 2 coming out soon! please review and tell me what you think. I really enjoy writing this, and it will only get more awesome and fun as the story continues onward. ~Peace~!<p> 


	3. Chapter 2:Explanations

Yay, a new chapter! Anyway this chapter 2 has spoilers so anyone who didn't finish the Anime or visual novel (Demon voice) **you have been warned! **...ah-hem, anyway enjoy the chapter.

* * *

><p>Chapter 2:Explanations<p>

After breakfast was done, the dinning room was cleaned and the dishes were washed and put away. We all went out into the living room and sat on the couch, though Hanyu was doing more floating then sitting. I couldn't help but wonder how I was going to tell Kim about this whole thing. There were two possible ways she would react to this. One: she would probably freak out or two: she'd slap me into next week for being stupid enough to listen to Antoine, either way you look at it ...I was in some deep shit.

I sighed and rubbed my temple as I felt yet another migraine coming on, Kim's going to kick my ass I just know she is.

"Soo~ what do you guys want to do?" Antoine asked, sitting on the arm of the chair looking bored.

"I don't know, maybe we could watch TV or something," I said.

Antoine looked in thought for a moment. "Hmm~, what to do, what to do ...hey Rika, Hanyu, have you two ever played video games before?"

Rika and Hanyu gave him a look of confusion. "...Video games?"

"Yeah, ya know, _Xbox 360_ or _PlayStation 3_, games like that?"

I slapped my forehead at my little brothers stupidity, he really didn't expect a Anime character from nineteen-eighty three to know about _Xbox_ did he? "Antoine, they're from the the year nineteen-eighty three, how the hell would they knew about video game consoles?"

"Oh yeah, you do have a point," Antoine then looked back at Rika, "well, Rika, have you have you ever been to an arcade before?"

Rika nodded smiling, "Mii~ yes I have, it was very fun, though I've only been there a few times! Mi-chan took the enter club there sometime ago in Okinomiya."

"That's great, then you can just think of video games as an arcade to play at home," Antoine said, smiling.

"So it's an arcade for the house? I've never heard of that before," Hanyu said, thoughtfully.

"But before we get to all the fun and games, we need to have a serious talk," I said, standing up looking at both Hanyu and Rika. It was about time I told them the truth.

Antoine looked at me with one of his rare serious expressions, "So your going to tell them now?"

I nodded, "Yeah, even if I didn't, they're bound to find out the truth sooner or later."

Hanyu looked between the both of us in confusion. "Auauau~ wait I don't understand what truth, is it something bad?"

"Mii~ yes I'm confused also, is there something wrong with me and Hanyu being here?" Rika asked, tilting her head to the side slightly. Damn could this girl get any cuter!

"Yes, in a way it is bad that your here, and I'm not talkin' about my house, I'm talking about my world in general," I could see Rika about to ask something, but I raised my hand signaling her to stop. "Just let me talk Rika, and please take this seriously, for now no more 'Mii' or 'Nipaa' or anything else cute, I want to talk to you Rika. The real you."

I could tell by the look on her face that she was surprised about me knowing her true personality, it didn't long for Rika's cuteness to disappear. Only to be replaced with the maturity and the voice of an adult.

"So you saw passed my act ...huh, I must admit I'm impressed, no ones ever done that before," Rika said, starring at me intensely.

"That because I know a lot about you, Rika." I said smirking, it was weird hearing a grown woman's voice coming out of a little girls body, but she was mentally over one-hundred years old. "Look, I know you have a lot of questions and I willing to answer them but just let me speak, alright."

Rika nodded and leaned back on the couch, "fine, go ahead and say what you want to say, Kevin-San."

"Thank you …hmm, now where do I start?" I thought for a moment, then snapped my fingers. "Okay, well Rika, Hanyu ...the truth is that in this world you guys are nothin' but characters from a visual novel, Anime and Manga called: Higurashi no naku koro ni, ...to put it bluntly. You two are considered fake here."

I paused for a moment to give them both time to take this all of what I just said in, though Rika didn't seem to believe me at first.

"What do you mean? Me and Hanyu aren't fake, we're just as real as you are!" Rika said, disbelief written in her voice.

Hanyu nodded agreeing with the blue haired miko, "Rika's right, we're not fake, I have a hard time believing you, Kevin-San, it one thing to be in a world totally different from ours. But, you expect me to believe that we were being watched the whole time we were fighting fate."

I sighed, I could understand how hard this was for them to believe, especially coming from someone they just met. But, I had to get them to believe me somehow, hmm? ...oh I know I'll show them my Manga! They'll have to believe me then!

I turned to to Antoine, smiling at my great idea, "Antoine, I want you to go into my room and get me two arcs from my _Higurashi no naku koro ni_ Manga collection."

Antoine stood up and nodded. "Alright, but ...um, which ones?"

"Well I was going to just let you get anyone, but now that you've said something get me, _Onikakushi-hen_ and _Watanagashi-hen_."

"Uh, can ya say that in English so I actually know which ones to get?"

I looked at Antoine and sighed. "Just get me, Abducted by demons chapter and Cotton drifting chapter."

"Gotcha~ I'll be right back," Antoine turned and ran up stairs.

I turned back to the girls, who for right now, still didn't believe a thing I had just said. "So you two really don't believe me in the slightest?"

Rika looked up, glaring at me, "how could we, it's pretty hard to believe that people from another world watched me die over and over again."

"Well actually, we've only seen you dead or killed in every arc but one," I said, giving a sad chuckle, trying to lighten the mood.

"That doesn't help me feel any better!" I winced, as Rika yelled at me.

"Auauau~ Rika please calm down," Hanyu said to her, in a soft and gentle tone.

Rika closed her eyes and breathed in, then exhaled slowly. "I'm okay now Hanyu. I just got a little mad that all." She then opened her eyes and looked up at me, "I'm sorry for yelling at you, Kevin-San. I didn't mean to."

I gave her a small smile and sat back on the couch next to her. "It's okay, this is a lot for you to take in so part of me expected you to be angry. So don't sweat it, alright."

We sat in silents, after a minute or two Antoine came back down stairs holding the four Manga books in one hand and his kitten, Bernkastle, in the other.

"Here I've got the books," he said sitting them on my lap. He then held up his cat, showing it to the girls. "Hanyu, Rika. I'd like you to meet my cat, Bernkastle."

Rika smiled, as she petted the cat in his arms. "She a cute one, No doubt you named her after the German winery, am I correct?"

"Who'd ya know that?" Antoine asked, raising an eyebrow.

Rika smirked, "it was just a guess."

Bernkastle looked at Rika, then jumped onto her lap and curled up into a ball letting Rika continue to pet her.

I laughed a little and looked at Antoine. "Wow, only a few seconds after meeting Rika, and she already likes her better then you."

"Psst, please!" Antoine plopped down on the couch next to me.

I rolled my eyes and let out a deep breath, held the book out to Rika. "Here read this, it's all the proof you'll need."

Rika looked at me, then down at the book and took it slowly, "Abducted by demons chapter?" She looked at the cover, which had a picture of Rena on it smiling, holding her hooked cleaver behind her. "Is-is this really Rena?"

I nodded,"Yeah it is, everything I've told you is the complete and honest trust. Just read that and see for yourself."

She nodded and opened the Manga to the first page, which had a picture of her, Rena, Satoko and Mion smiling, all of them wearing the Angle-Mort uniform. I saw a small smile form on her face as she turned to the next page, the table of contents and She reads them out loud.

"Hinamizawa village, Night of drifting cotton, Doubt..."

She turned to the next page and started reading, Hanyu came over and floated over her shoulder reading it also. Though, I didn't really think I needed the other three books but she might want to read those too.

It took Rika and Hanyu sixteen minutes to read the first Manga of _Onikakushi-hen_, Rika closed it and handed me back the book. From the look on her face she looked like she was in deep thought, and Hanyu hadn't said anything for a while either …I was actually starting to get kinda worried.

"Hey, you both alright?" I asked.

Rika looked up at me and nodded, "yes I'm fine. I'm just letting this all sink in for a moment."

Hanyu turned to me with a serious look on her face, "Kevin-San, can I ask you something?"

"Sure, ask away."

"We believe what you said now. But, if you knew about us, do you also know who's the one killing Rika?"

I felt a lump form in my throat, she wanted to about Rika's killer, was it even good to tell her? It could mess up the enter story if I do. Should I tell them or not? I was then knocked out of my thoughts when I heard Rika's voice.

"Kevin," I turned to Rika, who had a hopeful look her face. "Do you know who's killing me?"

I nodded my head slowly, "yes I do, but I can't tell you who it is."

"Brother ya might as will tell her." Antoine said seriously, petting Bernkastle ,who he had taken from Rika moments ago, "even if you don't she'll to find out later, either by asking someone on the street or looking it up on Google."

I couldn't help but nod in agreement with him, I didn't want to admit it but he had a point. "Fine I'll tell you. but, you'll be surprised who it is."

"Who is it?"

I sighed and answered her, "i-it's Takano …Takano Miyo."

Rika gave me a look of surprise and shock. "T-Takano Miyo, the nurse? The same Takano Miyo who dies in every world on the night of the Watanagashi festival?"

"Yep, that's the one! But the thing is she never dies, she sorta fakes her death by replacing herself with a fake corpse."

"And what about Tomitake, Does he fake his death too?"

"No, Takano killed him when he refused to help her massacre the village," I answered.

Rika rubbed her head in thought, "but why'd she kill me, what would she gain by taking my life away?"

"Well in order to find that out you need to know about Takano's life. You see Rika, Takano was the surname given to her by her adopted grandfather, Mifumi Takano, who was her dad's former professor but before that she was known as Tanashi Miyoko. her parents died in an unfortunate accident when she was young, I think she was younger then you actually, but anyway. The government had her sent to an orphanage. She and the children there were abused repeatedly, and eventually they try to escape. They are pursued, mostly because the orphanage gets government money based on the number of children they house."

"She evaded capture long enough to call her soon to be grandfather's number for help as her father had told her some time before his death. He saved and so she started her life with a new name: Takano Miyo. But, when Hifumi died he was humiliated and dissed by his superiors when he told them about the syndrome, It's because of this that she wants to become a god, she thinks that if she kills you and the village is destroyed then she and Hifumi will be written do in history and by being written in history, they'd become gods. Which is stupid but ...that's what she believes." I explained.

Rika looked up at me, sadness and anger written on her face. "I don't care what her childhood was like, that gave her no right to ruin mine! That doesn't give her the right to kill me!"

I pulled Rika into a one armed hug, trying to comfort her. "And I completely agree with you Rika, that doesn't justify her actions, but there's good news, your not in Hinamizawa anymore. You don't have to worry about dieing here, er ...well not as much as you had to in your world but still. Actually, I think you should stay here for a while. Take a break from fighting fate and think of a plan before you go back. That sound good to you."

Rika nodded and gave a sad smile. "Yeah, but where would I stay?"

I was about to answer but Ant' cut me off. "Where do ya think, with us of course!" Antoine said smiling. "You and Hanyu can use my room, and I'll sleep in Kevin's room, that's uh ...if you don't mind, Kev."

I shrugged, "I don't care, just keep my room clean and no touching my things without asking, alright?"

"Gotcha," Antione gave me a thumbs up then looked at both Rika and Hanyu. "Okay Girls, in order to get your mind off this whole killing business. I'll teach you the true joy in a child's life, video games! ...Lets go!" And with that he took Rika's hand and pulled her up stairs before she could protest.

"Auauau~! Antoine-San, don't pull Rika so hard!" Hanyu said, following them to my bedroom.

I sighed and started walking up the stairs after, now we only had one person to worry about telling ...my sister.

**~ ~(Part2) ~ ~**

We sat on my room watching Antoine hookup the_ Xbox 360_, I sat on the end of the bed, Rika was sitting next to me and Hanyu floated over Rika. I looked over at my alarm clock, it said three-forty five pm, I was actually surprised because I didn't expect talking to Rika and Hanyu to last that long but , oh well, what can you do.

"Auauau~ Kevin-San, can I asked you something else?"

I looked at Hanyu and smiled, "sure whats up?"

"Can you tell me and Rika about your world? It would really help us to know about where we'll be staying."

"Alright sure, give me a minute." I got up, walked over and opened my dresser looking inside it. "Hmm? Let see, where is it? Ahh~ here it is," I dug deeper into my dresser and pulled out a rolled up world map, then I walked back over to Rika and Hanyu.

"Is that a map?" Rika asked curiously.

I sat on the bed and rolled the map out for them to see. "Yep, As you can see this is my world, we have all the continents from your world like Europe, Australia, Antarctica. We even have your home, Japan which is right here," I then pointed to Japan on the map. "But, right now we are here in North America, right here."

Rika nodded in understanding, "Where are we in America, what state and city?"

I turned it over to the back that held a map of the U.S and pointed where we were out on the map, "we're right here in the city of brotherly love Philadelphia, Pennsylvania."

Hanyu looked at me in amazement. "Auauau~ wow, that's half way around the world. We're no where near Hinamizawa!"

"Actually, there's no such thing as Hinamizawa here, the village your home is based off of is called: _Shirakawa-go_ and the population is less Hinamizawas', around 1,864 if I remember correctly," I snapped my fingers when I finally remembered I forgot to tell them something, something really important."Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the year in my world is different to, it's not June, 1983. It's actually June, 2012."

"2012! So not only are we in another world, but we somehow ended up twenty-nine years in the future!" Rika said surprised.

I gave a nervous chuckle and nodded, "hehe, yep pretty much so ...uh, welcome to the future."

"Auauau~ twenty-nine years is a long time! It would have been different if we were in 1985 or even 1993 but 2012. that means we've missed out on a lot of things," Hanyu said timidly.

"Yeah that's true, but don't worry about it, I'll teach you everything I know, so don't sweat it. But, there's good news."

"What news?"

"This means you've survived way past, June, 1983."

"Well ...I guess you have a point," Rika replied calmly.

I smiled and gave her a small pat on the back, it was going to take Rika a lot of adjusting but I was sure she and Hanyu would fit right in here. I turned and faced the TV, Antoine walked over to my closet and took out all of my Xbox games and laid them on the floor.

"Okay, Rika, Hanyu this baby right here, is an _Xbox 360_," he said patting the game console. "All you have to do is put in one of these disks right here and you can play games." Antoine turned around and cut on the TV then he turned on the _Xbox_. "This big circle bottom right here in how you turn it off and on, and this button right here brings out the tray where you put the game disks, you can also watch DVDs on here too."

"What's a ...DVD?" Hanyu asked curiously.

"Oh it's ya know, like movies and stuff like that." Antoine answered, he then put out the games in front of Rika. "Sense your new to this, I'll give you the first turn ...what game do you want. We have Resident evil 5, Super Street Fighter 4, Silent hill: homecoming, Tekken 6, Surfs Up-"

"What's this game?" Rika asked interrupting him, pointing to the game on the left side of him.

Antoine looked over and smiled, picking it up, "Oh this is _Left4dead_ _2_, it's a really scary zombie game where you have to pick one of four characters who work together to survive a zombie apocalypse."

Rika nodded and took the game from him, looking at the back of the case. "I think I'll try playing this game."

"Auauau~ b-but Rika, he said that game was really scary," Hanyu whimpered.

"Oh stop being such a wuss, Hanyu. I'm sure this game isn't that scary."

Rika gave the game to Antoine, and he cut on the Xbox and put the disk in the tray. "Okay Rika, how you play this game is simple, though I'd rather you play the first game but too bad for you we don't have it anymore. Anyway, you press RT to shoot, you press B to reload..."

While Antoine told Rika the controls, I started pondering on what I should do when big sis got home, though it would probably be hard for her to believe that I wished an Anime character here by accident. But, it's not like this is the first time something freaky has happened in this house, like the time Grandma gave me that haunted doll. Yeah ...that didn't turn out well.

"-And that's pretty much it, now surviving is up to you Rika." Antoine said, giving a evil smile.

"Mii~ I'm only shooting zombies, how hard can it be," Rika said back to her cute and childish state. She went to campaign mode and picked Rochelle.

**~~(a few hours later)~~**

I smiled, Rika seemed to be really into the game, and she only died like four or five times which is way less then I did when I first played _Left4dead 2_. Right now, she was on the first part of Dark Carnival, which as of now she was being chased by a Tank.

"Rika, what are you doing shoot the Tank before it kills you!" Antoine yelled.

"Mii~ I'm trying but it won't die!" Rika switched her weapon from a combat shotgun to a Katana and cut the Tank about 6 times before it finally hit the ground dead. "Yay~ I killed the big mean zombie, pachi pachi~!" She said while clapping her hands.

"Finally! You almost died ya know and your healths in the red now," Antoine said.

"That's what the first aid kit is for silly," Rika said playfully.

"Auauau~ Rika you should probably try a bit harder so you don't die again."

I looked over at the clock, it said five-thirty pm. Oh crap I've gotta to start dinner! I got up off my bed and stretched my arms and legs I guess it's like they say 'time flies when your having fun'.

I started walking to the door when Antoine's voice stopped me. "Where you going, Kev?"

I turned to him and answered, "Well unlike you I've got to cook dinner."

"Why not just let Kim do that when she gets home?"

I smirked, "Because she'll be tired when she gets back, and besides Ant' have you ever tasted that disaster Kim calls cooking."

"Hahaha! Yeah I can't lie, her cooking is pretty horrible." He said laughing.

Rika passed the controller to Antoine, not bothering to pause her game, "how about I help you cook dinner, Kevin-San." She said walking over to me.

"But, don't you want to finish your game?" I asked.

"Mii~ not right now, I can always finish it later?"

"B-but your the guest," I stated. "And the guest is never supposed to help the host with cooking."

"But I really, really want to help, pretty please," She asked giving me puppy dog eyes. God why is this girl so cute!

I sighed and shrugged, "fine you can help. Just stop with the eyes."

"Yay!" Rika exclaimed as she took my hand and started dragging me out my room. "We're going to make the best dinner your sister has ever tasted, that's a promise. Nipaa~!"

"Hehe~ Yeah, I'm sure we will," I smiled as I was lead down the steps. When we got into the kitchen. I walked over to the cabinet and pulled out all of the bottled seasonings I was going to use for dinner tonight, I was thinking about making Jamaican curry chicken, rice, briskets, and cabbage. Hmm~ Yep, that sounds good to me. I laid to seasonings on the counter, then I looked back in the cabinet and took out a container full of unopened Jamaican curry power.

"Hey Rika, can you look in the bottom of the refrigerator and pass me that bag of chicken wings?" I asked, as I washed out one of the big iron pots in the sink.

"Sure, what did you plan on making?"

"Curry chicken, rice, briskest and cabbage." I answered.

Rika nodded and looked in the refrigerator, then came over to me holding the bag of chicken. "Here you go."

I smiled and took the bag."Thank you Rika."

I placed the chicken in the sink about to wash it off but before I did, I dug into my pocket and pulled a small red Mp3 player I got at the beginning of the month.

"Whats that?" Rika asked.

I held it out to her and answered, "this, Rika, is one of the greatest things ever made in the twenty-first century. An Mp4 player, it holds all types of things from music to photos and even videos."

"Mii~ But, how can all that fit into something so small?"

"Ya know what, I don't really know I've never thought of asking." I turned on the Mp4 player and handed it to her. "Put the ear phones it in your ear, that's how you listen to it."

"Okay," She said putting them in her ears.

I turned around and started cleaning the chicken off, Rika took the cabbage out the fridge and went over to the table, cutting it on the cutting broad while humming to the music. Yep, things were definitely going to get a lot more interesting around here, that's for sure.

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><p>Yes another chapter done and over with! So tell me, what do you think? Do you have Ideas? Did you like it or dislike it? Remember to review. Chapter 3 is coming out soon ~Peace~<p> 


	4. Chapter 3: Another wish

I'm back! I know I've been gone for a while. My internet cut off for a whole 2 weeks and I had no way to get on, So sorry about the wait. Anyway here's the knew chapter I hope you like it. Enjoy!

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><p>Chapter 3: Another wish!<p>

It was about 7:45pm and dinner was almost ready. The cabbage was done, thanks to the help of Rika; the curry chicken was still boiling on the stove, and the briskets were cooling off on top of the table. Everything was just about done, it won't be long now.

I took a deep breath, inhaling the sweet aroma that was in the kitchen. Yep, now you know that's good food when you can taste it in the smell. I smiled and turned to Rika, who was still at the table with her eyes closed listening to my Mp4 player, though I was kinda curious about what song she was listening to.

I walked over and tapped Rika on the shoulder. She opened her eyes and looked up at me, taking out the headphones.

"Mii~ do you need something, Kevin-San?" Rika asked innocently.

I shuck my head. "No, I was just wondering what you were listening to."

"Oh, well, I don't know what the group is called but the lead singer, she has a very beautiful voice," She said, I took one of the headphones and put it up to my ear, she was listening to …Missing by Evanescence.

I smirked and looked at her, "soo~ you like Evanescence, huh, Rika?"

"So that what they're called," Rika said in thought, then she looked at me giving one of her cute smiles. "Yep I like them, their music's good and I can relate to it, I really wish they had this type of music in Hinamizawa."

My smirk turned into a smile, on the outside I was normal, but on the inside I was jumping with joy. I was turning one of my favorite Anime characters into a Evanescence fan! This day just keeps getting better and better.

"Well, if you like Evanescence. There are two other bands on there, one is called Linkin park and the other is called 3 day grace."

"Mii~ Linkin park? That sounds interesting, can you put it on for me?" Rika asked, holding the Mp4 out to me.

I nodded. "Sure," I went through the play-list and stopped at Shadow of the day, one of my favorite Linkin park songs. Then I handed it back to her. "Here, Linkin park is awesome. I think you'll like em'."

Rika smiled and took the Mp4, putting the headphones in her ears, then pressed the play button. At first she listened to it silently then about a minute into the song she smiled. "this song's good too. But I still like the other band a bit better." Rika looked at me and asked, "so who is your favorite, Kevin-San?"

I thought on it for a moment, then answered, "well, if I had to choose I'd say ...Evanescence. But, there are times when I like Linkin Park and 3 day grace better, so ...I pretty much like them all equally."

Rika nodded, I got up and went over to the stove to check the food, it looked like it should be done in about 35minutes, maybe a half hour. I think Kim should be home by then, if not then I'll just save some food for her.

I then heard Rika's voice again. "So who taught you how to cook ...?" the blue haired miko asked.

I sighed and sat back down next to her at the table. "Um ...my mom did, she was a cook and I wanted to be one too just like her. She taught me all of her recipes and even let me have her cookbook. She was great, one of the best."

"Was? Did something happen to her?"

I felt my heart start to ache a little, I always felt bad whenever I talked about my mom, or even both my parents. But that didn't mean I _never_ talked about them. It was just ...not something I liked to bring up, though I would gladly answer Rika's question. "Well, I don't really like to talk about it but ...she and my dad ...died a few year ago in a car crash."

I felt my eyes start to water up slight, but I quickly wiped them. There was no way I was going to cry again, I promised myself that I won't cry anymore and I'm not.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to ask you something that would make you feel bad," Rika said sadly. "I know what it's like to loose your parents, so I understand how you feel." Then I felt her pat my head, it sorta reminded me of the way someone would pet a cat. "Sadness, sadness, be gone. There, do you feel better now?"

I laughed a little at Rika, she was just too cute for words! It's hard to stay sad around her, and her patting my head did make me feel better for some strange reason. "Yeah I'm okay now, thank you Rika."

"Mii~ that's what friends are for." She said smiling cutely, "Nipaa~!"

Damn it, so cute! I can see why Rena gos crazy when she does this.

I smiled back, "well, sense the foods pretty much done. Why don't we do something fun while we wait for the curry, hmm, I know I'll show you the wonders of the internet."

"What the internet...?" She asked, I took her by the hand and guided her out to the living room to were we kept the computer. I hurried to the dinning room and brought back 2 chairs, then we sat down in front of the computer.

"Rika, this is a computer, I'm sure you've seen one before, right?"

"Yes, I've seen some in the clinic," She answered.

"Oh, that's go! Okay, to answer your question. The internet is the worlds information super highway, you can do almost anything on it, like chat with someone halfway around the world or play games online with people you know or don't know. It's good for fun, But; there are some people who use it for evil. Which is why you should always be careful, and never give out information to strangers." I explained to her, "but just because there's danger doesn't mean you still can't have fun, you just have to smart about it."

Rika smiled and nodded. "Okay, I understand."

"Good! Now lets have some fun," I said happily. I turned on the computer and heard the usual tune you hear when you cut on any Windows computer. We wanted about a minute as the computer to load up, afterward I clicked on the Mozilla Firefox icon then the page came up with the Google search box on it.

"So Rika, what do you want to do? We can watch videos, play online games, read Manga. Take your pick."

"Uh, I want to ...play a game. That sounds like fun," Rika answered.

I nodded and typed in my favorite online game site, Y3, the page loaded up pretty fast, hehe~ thank you Comcast.

"Well there you go, choose any game from this site, I personal like skate boarding games, but you can pick which ever one you want." I said standing up about to check the food, then I remember a question that had been bugging me for a while now. "oh yeah, and before I go, can I ask you something, Rika?"

Rika nodded. "Sure what is it?" she took the mouse and started playing a online version of checkers against the computer.

"I've been wondering, why do you change to your cute side when your around Keiichi and the others but when your with only Hanyu you stay your normal, mature self?"

When Rika answered, she spoke in her mature, adult voice. "It's simple really, I don't wan to scare them. Every time I die and Hanyu 'resets' time to a new Hinamizawa they can't remember what happened in the previous world, so if your friend just one day out of the blue started talking like an adult being all mature and serious. Wouldn't be afraid, or maybe a little nervous around them?"

I nodded in understanding, it made sense. "So your afraid then, your afraid that if you act like your true self you'll lose all your friends."

"Yeah, that's why I've never opened up to them, if I do t-they'll want nothing to do with me anymore."

I just sighed and patted Rika on the head, sorta the same way she had done to me a few moments ago. "Rika I know you don't want to lose your friends, but you have to have more faith in them. If you tell them everything, minus about Hanyu and the endless June, I'm sure they'll believe you."

Rika turned around, looking at me curiously. "And how can you be so sure they'll believe me?"

"Because you've already done it in the Manga," I said simply. "And besides, your not in Hinamizawa anymore, and your not outside, so just be your normal self. Okay?"

Rika nodded, smiling. "Fine, I'll act like myself then."

I gave her head one more pat on the head before walking back into the kitchen to check the food. I started to steer the chicken, hmm~ maybe I should cook something else to go with the curry like …rice! Yep that sounds like a good side dish to make with curry. I walked over to the cabinet and took out a medium sized pot and started preparing the rice. It was around that time, the house phone starting ringing.

I went over and answered it. "Moshi moshi!"

"Kevin, what did I say about answering the phone in Japanese?" Yep, It was big sis, I wasn't really surprised because she usually calls home right around the time she gets off work.

I laughed. "Hehe, I only answered it that way because I knew it was you, so what up sis?"

"Nothing, I was just callin' to see if dinner was ready yet."

"Kim, I hurt. Your more concerned about food then you are about your little brothers."

"No, I was asking because I've invited David over for dinner tonight."

I smirked and asked teasingly. "Soo~ your bringing your boyfriend home today, I'm surprised you had the guts to ask him this time."

"W-what! H-he's not my boyfriend, he my partner, so get it right!"

"Yeah, your love partner right?"

"J-just shut up and have the food ready, understand."

"Sure," I laughed. When I stopped, I thought it would be best to tell Kim about Rika before she got here. "Oh yeah, um, Kim."

"What is it, Kev..?" She asked.

"Well, um, you know yesterday when grandma gave me that monkeys paw?"

"Yeah, what about it?"

"Uhh, you see I sorta made a wish on it and-." It was then that I heard a sudden scream, well not really a scream, more like a loud shout in surprise followed by a loud thud come from the living room. From the voice I could tell it was Rika. "Sorry sis, I've got to go!"

"Wait a minute, what were you about-?"

"I'll tell you when you get here, bye." I then hung up the phone. Yep, Kim was going to be mad when she got home, no doubt about it.

I sighed, walking out to the living room. Rika was on the floor with her hand on her chest, looking as if something had scared her. Though, I had no idea what could scare a her this much.

"Uhh ...Rika, are you okay?" I asked.

She nodded and pointed to the computer. "Yeah I'm fine, but what the hell is that?"

"Huh?" I looked up and almost died laughing at what had scared her, on the computer was the face of the monster girl from the scary maze games, that would explain the shout in surprise. "Hahahaha!"

"What's so funny? I almost had a heart attack!" Rika shouted, with a mad look on her face. I just kept laughing, not saying anything, this was just too funny!

There were a pair of foot steps coming down the stairs, Antoine came over with Hanyu right behind him, with a confused look on their face. "What's goin' on down here?" He asked.

I stopped laughing and wiped the tears from my eyes while pointing to the computer. "Rika, played one of those scary maze games and got so scared she fell out of her seat." Antoine couldn't help but laugh a little.

"Auauau~ Rika are you okay?" Hanyu asked, floating over to the blue hair girl.

Rika nodded and stood up. "Yeah I'm fine Hanyu," she then turned to me. "What's a scary maze game?" I could tell she was still mad at me, but she's not the first one, I've laughed at almost everyone who had fallen for those maze games. Hell, I even jump a little when I first play it.

"Rika, what you just play is one of the best internet pranks ever, the scary maze game. It's a game where you have to complete a maze, but in the middle of the last level you get a very scary surprise." I explained.

Antoine went up and pat Rika on the back. "Don't worry Rika, your not the first one to fall for it, so what did you think."

Rika just gave him a frown, "I don't know, but it didn't really scare me, I was just caught off guard is all."

"Yeah I know, it's supposed to do that." I said chuckling slightly, then I turn to Antoine. "Kim said that she invited David over, you know what that means, right?"

Antoine nods, grinning. "Yep ...leave it to me!" He said running into the kitchen.

"Um, who's David?" Hanyu asked shyly.

I smiled and answered her. "Well, Hanyu, David is my sisters partner, he doesn't know it but big sis has been in love with him for years, I mean like sense high school. She may be a tomboy but when it comes to telling David how she feels about him she turns all shy and stuff so-"

Antoine then came out of the kitchen, and cut me off. "A few months back me and Kevin decided to try and get them together, we had it all planed out but sense you guys are here we could really use the help."

"Yep, this will make things a whole lot easier with more people," I agreed, I then looked at Hanyu and Rika with a hopeful expression. "So ...will you both help us get them together?"

"Yeah, it would really, really make my sister happy," Antoine said.

Rika thought about it for a moment, then nodded. "Shion would probably be better at this then I am but ...Sure, it sounds like fun playing match maker for once."

"Auauau~ I'd be happy to help but, I can't do anything like this, nothing at all." Hanyu said sadly.

I had to admit she had a point, Hanyu couldn't do anything in that form ...hmm, I wonder how I can fix that.

"Wait, Hanyu ...can't you turn yourself into a physical form?" I asked, Hanyu gave me a confused look.

"Turn myself physical …? I don't really know I've never tried it before." Oh yeah, I almost forgot she did that in Higurashi Kai.

I thought for a moment, how could I turn Hanyu into a physical form ...hmm? Hold up! Maybe I could try using the monkey paw. I mean it was strong enough to bring them both to the real world, it had to be strong enough to turn a transparent person, solid again …right?

"Hmm, yeah ...I think that could work!" I said thoughtfully.

"What could work?" Antoine asked.

I looked over at my brother and grinned. "I think I've found a way to turn Hanyu into her solid form." I answered.

"Is that even possible to do?" Rika asked in disbelief. "I've been with Hanyu for a long time and she's always been like this."

"Well, that's true but she's never actually tried turn herself mortal because she would lose the power to travel between worlds, and if that happen you'd die permanently instead of going to the next Hinamizawa. But with the monkey paw I'm sure we can do it without her having to losing any of her powers."

"So, I'll be able to play with everyone now and still have my powers at the same time?" Hanyu asked, I could hear the joy in her voice but I didn't want her to get to happy just encase it didn't work that way.

"Maybe, but don't get your hopes up because it might not work, you may still lose your powers, lets just hope you don't."

I walked over to the TV stand and looked on top of it, for some reason it was way junker then it was last night. After moving a few papers and envelops I found it. I picked up the hairy paw then walked back over to the others, showing it to Rika and Hanyu.

"This is the monkey paw I talked about a while ago." I said holding it up to them. "I'll try using this to turn you solid Hanyu, but keep in mind that ya might still lose your powers, or something else might go wrong."

"What do you mean, might go wrong …?" Rika asked cautiously.

I held the paw up and explained. "My grandma told me that this paw can grant wishes, 5 if you count the fingers. I already made one wish, and brought you two here by accident, which is why the index finger is bent inward like this, but you have to be really specific and choose your words carefully or the wish will back fire on you. For example: If you wished to go to a perfect Hinamizawa, Rika, you'll get it, the only bad thing would be is that your friends wouldn't be your friends anymore. Get it?"

Rika nodded and said. "Okay, I understand a little, so your say if your not specific or use the wrong word you'll hurt Hanyu."

"Welll~ not actually hurt, but there is a risk. It's small risk though, maybe a 25% chance something bad can actually happen" I then turn to Hanyu. "But, Are you willing to take that risk, Hanyu?"

"Auauau~ I-I don't know, I've always wanted to play with everyone , but there's a chance that something can go wrong." Hanyu said, unsure of what she should do, she then turned to Rika, "what do you think I should do, Rika?"

"Hanyu, the chose you make is up to you, your not a baby, you can speak for yourself," Rika said, in a calm voice.

Antoine smiled and voiced his own opinion. "I say ya go for it, even if there's a chance something can go wrong, take it, life's not worth living if you don't take risks every once in a while!"

I just rolled my eyes at him, he was one to talk. "And this is coming from the person who takes risks all the time."

"Hey, I just like to live my life to the fullest!"

"whatever you say, Ant'" I then turned to Hanyu. "I agree with Rika though, Hanyu. It's your chose to stay the way you are, or take a chance. It's all up to what you want to do," I said calmly.

Hanyu was quite for a while, probably thinking of the bad things that could happen, but on the up side their were good things that could happen. After a minute or so, she gave us her answer.

"I-I'll try it, if I'm able to play with everyone then l-losing my powers might not be so bad." She said confidently, but I could still clearly hear the nervousness in her voice.

I simply nodded to her. "Okay, just give me a moment, I need to think of the right words to use."

I thought long and hard on it, it was all about the words I chose, if I just said I wish Hanyu into a physical form then there was a possibility that she would end up in someone's body rather then having her own. Lets see ...ahh, I've got it!

"I wish Hanyu into her visible form, the same way she was in Higurashi Kai!" There was then the feeling of mussels moving in the hand like I'd felt the night before, then the middle finger on the paw started to bend inward until it looked the same as the index finger.

I looked at Hanyu and notice she was glowing a reddish color, then there was a flash of bright red light that blinded us for a moment. Then the light died down, she slowly became less and less transparent, until you could no longer she through her, and slowly floated down on to the floor on her own 2 feet. Yeah It worked! Hanyu was in her visible form, which actually looked just like her transparent form, because she still had on her miko outfit.

"Wow! It worked, your not a ghost anymore!" Antoine shouted happily.

Hanyu just stood there looking at herself and touched her cheek, then a huge smile appeared on her face. "I-It worked ...It really worked! After being invisible for so long I can finally play with everyone, and eat sweets and cream puffs and-and! Auauau~ Thank you so much Kevin-San." She took me by surprise and ran at me, giving me a big hug, which almost knocked me off my feet. I was surprised but I couldn't help but smile at her.

"Your very welcome, Hanyu." I said softly, returning the hug. After a moment we separated.

Rika walked over to Hanyu and looked at her closely, "So that actually work, huh ...well, It's nice to see you in the flesh for once, Hanyu."

They both smiled at each other, until Antoine then clapped his hand, catching everyone's attention."Okay, now that that's done and over with we should start the plan, and finish dinner."

I nodded in agreement, "alright then, me and Rika will finish dinner, you and Hanyu set the table and we'll start the plan when Kim gets here."

Hanyu and Antione nodded, running off to do their jobs. While me and Rika went into the kitchen to finish dinner. Big sis was going to be home in a little while so we had to really hurry and get things done, hopefully everything gos according to plan.

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><p>Well that's chapter 3, the next chapter will be out soon and I promise it won't be long this time. Peace~<p> 


	5. Chapter 4: Welcome Home

Well here the new chapter, it was tough but I had fun writing it, and for all of those who reviewed so far thank you all very much! Anyway Enjoy!

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><p>Chapter 4: Welcome Home!<p>

Afterward when everything was set up for dinner we all sat out in the living room waiting for Kim. Hanyu and Antoine were on the floor playing with his cat, Bernkastle, while me and Rika sat near the couch at the coffee table playing an intense game of chess. Which I found out Rika was surprisingly good at.

"What the hell is taking Kim so long? We've been waiting for a entire half hour," Antoine pouted. "Hey, Kev, why don't we just start eating without her."

"Be patient, Ant'. She'll get here when she gets here." I said, not looking up from the broad on the table, I thought for a moment before moving my rook, taking Rika's Bishop. "Hehe~ your move, Rika."

"I'll admit that was a good move, but this is a better one," she moved her Knight, taking my rook but at the same time putting my king in check, forcing me to move it.

Now I found myself completely trapped, I had more pieces then Rika but she still somehow manged to trap me, if I move my king to the right there was her 2nd bishop, if I moved it down there was a pawn there, and if I tried moving it up there was Rika's queen waiting for the kill. I was completely and utterly trapped, it was checkmate, game over.

"Damn ...okay, you win Rika, I give up." I said with a sign. "Your way better then I expected, who taught you to play?"

Rika smiled and answered. "Well ...I taught myself to play, and sometimes I'd play a game or two with Hanyu when I was bored or alone at home."

At that point I was sorta confused. "Wait, I'm confused, how could Hanyu play chess when she couldn't touch anything until now…?"

"Oh, that's easy, I'd move her pieces, sometimes people saw me and thought I was playing alone, but Hanyu was there telling me what pieces she wanted me to move for her." She explained. "Hanyu's pretty good herself, you should ask her to play with you sometime."

"Hmm~ I'll be sure to do that." I nodded, and started putting up the chess pieces and the broad, I never knew Rika liked playing chess ...but I guess that's one of the things they don't you in the Anime, Manga or visual novels.

I walked over and put the chess game at the bottom of the TV set, where we kept the over broad games, it was just then that I heard a car pull up outside.

Antoine ran over and looked out the window. "Finally! It's about fuckin' time!"

"Um ...Antoine-San, it's not good to swear," Hanyu said shyly.

He turned to her and gave a nervous chuckle. "Hehe~ ma bad, it sorta just slipped out."

"Is that Kim?" I asked, walking over to him.

He gave a nod. "Yeah, it's her ...and David too."

"Okay then, Rika, Hanyu, I want you both to be as cute as possible. Alright?"

Rika nodded, smiling cutely. "Mii~ I understand sir."

"Auauau~ I'll try my best," Hanyu said.

"Antoine, you just ...uhh... be yourself."

He gave me a thumbs up, "Gotcha!"

"Okay! Operation: Hook up shall now commence," I said loudly.

The door bell ranged, then there was a knock on the door. I walked over and put my hand on the nob. Sigh, I guess I'll have some explaining to do in a moment. I unlocked the door and turned the nob, opening the door for them.

"Hey Kim, welcome back," I greeted with a wave. "It's nice to see you again, David, it's been a while."

"Yeah I know it's been way too long sense I've last seen you," David said with a smile.

I smiled at him, David hadn't changed much. Which wasn't really surprising, it had only been 3 months sense I last saw him. He had light blue eyes, white skin, peach colored not pale, chestnut brown hair and he had on a pair of blue jeans, a red shirt with a white T shirt under it.

"Um ...are you going to let us in anytime soon, we can't hold these bags forever!" Kim said, lifting her arms slightly. I'll admit I didn't notice the big bags until now, though I was sorta curious of what she brought.

"Oh ...sorry," I moved to the side and let them both walk in before closing and locking the door behind us.

Antoine ran up to Kim and gave a cheeky smile. "Whats up, Kim! It good to see ya again David."

David smiled, "it's nice to see you again too, still short as ever in see." He said with a laugh.

"Hey! I'm not that short, just you watch I'll be wayyy taller by next year!" Ant' said back in anger.

Kim then looked at me and asked, "so how was he today? Bad or so so?"

"Actually, he was pretty good today, he didn't pull his usual stunts," I answered. "But I really need to talk to you, it import-."

"Who are those two?" Kim asked looking behind me where Rika and Hanyu were standing quietly. They both walked over to us, near the front door and smiled, though Hanyu's smile was slightly nervous.

"You see, uhh, this is Rika Furude," I pointed to the blue haired girl, "and her ...uhh ...cousin, Hanyu," then I pointed to the miko clad girl. "Guys, this is my older sister, Kim."

Hanyu gave a slight bow. "It's nice to meet Kim-san."

Rika smiled cutely, bowing also. "It's a pleasure to meet to sir."

Kim blinked a few times then looked at me, "did she just call me 'sir'...?"

"Um ...yeah, but Kim I really need to talk to you, it really important."

"Is it about them?" She asked, pointing at the two girls.

"Yes ...but can we talk somewhere more private, ya know, where Kevin can't hear."

"Psst, Fine."

I grabbed her hand and lead her into the dinning room by the table, were no one could hear us, Kim gave me a look and said in a serous tone. "Start talking, what's this all about?"

I sighed, "okay, ...do you remember that monkeys paw Grandma got me?"

"Yeah, what about it?"

I started my story from the beginning, hoping she won't be too mad about this. I told her everything about Rika and Hanyu, I also told her about the wish I made that brought them here. As I continued telling her what happened Kim's face went from shocked to annoyed.

"Wait wait wait! Stop right there, you mean to tell me that those 2 girls out there are from some Anime you watch?"

I nodded. "Yeah. Not only that but until I can get them home, they'll need a place to stay."

"They're not staying here if that's what your thinking!" Kim said without hesitation.

"But Kim, come on! It's not like the girls are dangerous or anything. And besides are you going to throw 2 cute little girls out on the streets," I said.

"Look ...I'm not trying to be mean or anything, but this is too much," she said back. "I already have to take care of you and Antoine, not only that but the house is too small. Where would they sleep?"

"Um ...actually, me and Antoine were going to share my room, while they used his room."

"Okay, so they have a place to sleep. But what about cloths, they have nothing here, do you know how much buying all that stuff is going to cost! ...No, I'm sorry but they can't stay here."

"But, Kim-!"

"Don't 'but Kim' me, they're not staying here!"

Oh man, this is bad, what the hell do I do now! Once Kim makes up her mind it's hard to change it but still I have to convince her somehow.

"Kim, please I'm begging you, it's my fault they're stuck here, I know it was stupid to listen to Ant'. But you have to let them stay," I said with pleading eyes. "I'll do whatever it takes, hell, I'll even get a job just please don't kick them out, Kim."

Kim raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms in front of her chest. "You'll do whatever it takes, huh?"

"Yeah I'm totally serious," I said nodding.

She sighed and rubbed her temple, looking at me with an annoyed expression on her face. We stood there just starring at each other for what seemed like hours. Then Kim sighed again, shrugging. "You know what. Fine, if you feel so strongly about this ...then they can stay here for as long as they have to."

I let out a sigh in relief and gave Kim a thankful smile, "thanks a lot Kim, I promise you won't regret this!"

"I hope not," she said walking back to the living room, then she stopped and turned back to me again. "Oh yeah, one more thing I forgot to mention."

"Uhh ...what is it?" I didn't know why but I suddenly got a bad feeling, and the grin that slowly appeared her face didn't make me feel any better about what she was about to say next.

"Just to make this clear, whatever has to be brought for them ...Comes out of your allowance money."

"What! But why my allowance money, why not Antoine's?" I asked pouting.

"Because your the one who made the wish, and besides weren't you the one saying 'I'll do whatever it takes'?" Kim said with a smirk.

She had a point, I did say 'I'd do whatever it takes', and it was my fault that they were even here to begin with. God, why did I have to be so stupid and listen to Antoine ...But I guess losing my allowance money is better then them being sent to somewhere else or being put on the streets.

I sighed again, "Fine ...you can use my allowance. It's better then them being kick out."

Kim smirked, nodding, "Alright then, now lets go eat, I'm sure everyone's hungry."

"Yeah."

And with that said we both walked back out into the living room. Antoine sat on the couch while David and the girls were all talking having a normal conversation.

"-and that's why I became a cop, so I could protect innocent people from those who might try and hurt them."

"Mii~ I think it's really good that you became a policeman to protect people, sir," Rika said with a cute smile.

"You really think so, huh?"

She nodded, "yes I do sir."

"Well thanks, you know if you wanted to you'd probably be a good cop someday, Rika."

I chuckled at the image in my head of an adult version of Rika wearing a cop uniform, handcuffing a drunk person saying 'you have the right to remain silent'. Though, that would be pretty kick ass. "Hehe~ I doubt that's the right job for her, David."

"Oh come on, I'm sure Rika could pull off being a cop, no one thought I would and just look where I am now," David said. "So what were you both talking about?"

"Nothing much, just a little family problem I caused." Yeah right, as if wishing someone from an Anime world into the real one was a 'little' problem.

Antoine looked over at me with a hopeful expression. "So what did Kim say? Can they stay here?"

I nodded and smiled, "yeah. She said it was fine, though I won't be getting an allowance anytime soon but aw well, I'm cool with it. Anyway let's all get something to eat!"

"Auau~ I thinks that's a good idea," Hanyu said.

"I agree, let's eat everyone!" Rika said as she, Hanyu and Antoine walked into the dinning room. David stood up and we followed after them. Now there's just one thing left to take care of now, the plan to get Kim and David together.

**~ ~ ~(Part2)~ ~ ~**

Everyone sat at the dinning room table happily chatting with each other. Hanyu and Rika were in the kitchen fixing the plates and taking the food out to the table while I got the cups and the drinks.

"Alright, Rika you take this tray and you take this one, Hanyu," I said passing them each a tray, each tray had 3 plates on it so it wasn't that heavy.

The two girls nodded and took the trays from me before going back out into the dinning room. I walked over to the cabinet, taking out a 1 liter bottle of Ginger Ale and 6 cups out the dish rack, then I got a bag of ice out the deep freezer, before walking out into the dinning room myself.

When I took my seat at the table, sitting next to Antoine and Hanyu; David and Kim were talking about what happened during the day on their patrol through south Philadelphia.

"So the guy was just standing there, with his back turned to us while we sat in the car. David was the first one to voice that he looked suspicious and I thought the same thing. So we both got out the car and approached him to ask what was up and the second he saw us he jetted straight down the street and me and David started chasing after him. Umm~ you can take it from here Dave, you know I not that good at telling stories," Kim said facing her partner.

I started pouring the drinks as David took up where Kim left off. "Okay if that's what you want, anyway, so we started chasing the man down the street and then he turns down a alleyway in the middle of the block, on 13th in parish. Sense Kim was the fastest runner out of the two of us I told her to run around the corner to stop him at the other end of the alley while I continued to chase him from behind. The plan worked pretty well at first until he figured out what we were trying to do, but it was too late by that time and Kim was already waiting for him at the end of the alleyway.

"Now you would think a guy cornered by the police would stop, right? But nope he kept on running and sense he was bigger and taller then Kim, he tried to ram his way pass her and that where things got funny."

"Auauau~ what happened next?" Hanyu asked, she seemed to be really into the story.

"Yeah, what happened! Don't just leave us at a Clift hanger," Antoine said.

"Haha~ okay I'll continue, so he was running at full speed towards Kim, but she wasn't even worried, she just wore a grin on her face as the man got closer and closer, then at the last minute, right before he made contact. Haha! She side steps him and sticks her foot out, the guy trips and gos flying into a the side of a parked car face first, it was the funniest thing ever, man if I had a camera with me that would go right on YouTube, Hahaha!" David started laughing and so did everyone else at the table, me included. After he got out the last of his laughs he continued talking. "Anyway, so we arrested him and checked him for weapons, we ended up finding 6 small bags of marijuana and a 9mm pistol, after that we too him down to station and that was that."

I took my seat at the table and asked, "so what was he, a drug dealer?"

"Yep, so now that my stories over lets dig in, huh?"

"Alright, lets eat!" Antoine said right before stuffing his face full of food only to be scolded by Kim seconds later for eating like a slob before she started eating also.

Though it only happened rarely I enjoyed times like this, when family and friends would come over and eat together. It also made me really happy when everyone started praising me for making a fine meal.

"You've really out done yourself this time, Kev," Kim said taking another bite of her food. "Keep cooking like this and you'll be opening up your own 5 star restaurant one day."

David nodded in agreement eating his own food. "Yep, your mom would be real proud of you Kevin, no doubt."

"Aw come on, big bro always makes good food, it's waaayyy~ better then Kim's cooking ...Ow! What was that for!" Ant' said rubbing his head where big sis chucked a chicken bone at him.

"Less talking, more eating, brat." Kim said smugly.

"Your just mad because it's true, you can't cook for shit ….Ow!"

Hanyu turned to me and smiled shyly, "Auau~ you really are a good cook, Kevin-San. This food is very ...um, good."

"Mii~ I sure Kevin-San well make his wife in the future very happy with cooking skills like these," Rika said nodding.

I blushed slighted and continued eating, I wasn't really used to so many people praising me at once, I mean big sis and Antoine always said good things about my cooking, but it was way different when it came from someone outside of the home. "Well, I wasn't the only one cooking this time, Rika made the cabbage and help with the briskets."

"Oh ...so that's way the cabbage tasted different, I thought you were just using a different recipe," Kim said, eating more of the cabbage. "It's good though. Keep it up, Rika. You know they say a way to a mans heart is through his stomach."

"Hahaha~ well if that's the case, I doubt you'll get married anytime soon with your cooking skills, Kim," Antoine laughed.

"Shut up! Or do you want something worse then a chicken bone thrown at ya!" Kim said, blushing slightly out of embarrassment and anger.

"Oh yeah sure, and what are you goin' to throw? A gun," Antoine said, then he stopped and glanced over at me out the side of his eye before smirking. "Actually, now that I think about it, didn't grandma get you a gun the other day for a gift …?"

David looked up from his food, asking. "Really, what type of gun was it, Kim?"

"Oh ...it was a 1930s Beretta M1935," Kim answered.

"Hmm, that's a nice gun, pretty modern but at the same time still old school," David gave Kim a smile, "is it okay if I see?"

"Um, sure, just wait right here and I'll go get it for you." Kim got up from the table, walking out the dinning room and up the stairs.

I looked over at Ant', giving him a thumbs up, while mouthing to him. "Nice job."

He nodded and went back to eating, now it was my turn. "So David, can I ask you something?"

"Sure, what is it?"

I took a deep, nervous breath before I started talking, "how much ...do you like my sister?"

"Huh?" David gave me a curious look, "is that a quick question ...?"

"No ...but I just really want to know."

"Okay, well, she a nice person, funny and easy to get along with, and I care about her a lot. But why are you asking me this anyway?"

I didn't really know how to tell him that Kim liked, no, loved him. It could go a bunch of ways but I had to do this, if he ended up falling for someone else, big sis would be heart broken. I sighed, "David, I'm going to tell you something really important, but you have to promise not to tell Kim, okay?"

"Agreed, so what is it?" He asked, curiously.

"David, you know how Kim always looks at you funny and how she always seems a bit shy around you?"

"Yeah, what of it?"

"Well ...Kim really, really likes you, she felt this way ever sense she was in high school. I wanted to ask you if you liked her back, and if not then can you stay her best friend; big sis has done so much for me and Ant' ...I just want her to be happy."

I could see the look of surprise written on his face, "Wait, so ...Kim likes me?"

"Yeah, she's liked you for a long time, she just never had the guts to tell you because she was afraid of rejection."

"Wow, that's just, wow. Who would have thought Kim had a crush ...and on me of all people." David said in awe, then a smile appeared on his face. "And let me guess, you want me and your sister to start going out together?"

Antoine nodded, "yep that was sorta the reason for tellin' ya. So what do ya say?"

"Hmm, I don't know, believe it or not I've never really got into a relationship before and if something bad happens between us, it could ruin our friendship." He said in a unsure tone.

I thought he might need a little more ...motivation, and what better to motivate him then the two cutest girls in the house.

_Yep, this was perfect_, I thought as I looked at Rika and Hanyu, then nodding towards the cop.

Rika nodded back and got up out of her seat, followed by Hanyu, and went over to David, who just gave them a kind smile. "Do you two need something?"

Rika shuck her head, giving a smile that seemed to brighten up the room. "No sir, but I think you and Kim-San should go on a date, I'm sure she'd be very, very happy." Then her smiled got bigger and cuter as she beamed. "Nipaa!~"

"Awe! Aren't you the cutest little thing," David cooed as he patted her on the head.

Come on Hanyu, you can do this, just one more push, I said mentally.

"Auau~ David-San, I think you should try to have a relationship with Kim-San, and ...um," she blushed slightly and looked down at her feet, shifting her weight a little. "A-and, I-I ...I think you two would look really cute together!"

Antoine with a one-side grin, said. "Hey Hanyu, your really cute when your blushing."

Saying this only made the poor girl blush even more.

I leaned towards my brother and whispered harshly, "Stop hitting on Hanyu, Ant'!"

"Aw come on, I'm just messin' with her, besides even you can't deny that she's cute when her face is all red like that," He said.

Damn! I hate it when he's right. I sighed, turning to David. "So what do you say, you'll give it a try right?"

"I really don't know but," He looked at Rika again, who just smiled at him. "I guess one date won't hurt any."

"Yes, success!" me and Antoine exclaimed at the same time giving each other a high-five.

The girls walked back over and sat in their seats. I gave them a thumbs ups, "nice job you two."

"Mii~ It was all part of the plan, sir," Rika said.

After a few minutes, Kim came back down into the dinning room with her gun in hand, "here it is, you wanted to see it, right?"

David nodded and got up, walking over to her. "Yeah I did. But, Um, Kim can I talk to you in private." He asked nervously.

Kim raised a eye brow and looked over at me and Ant'. "What did you two do?"

"We didn't do anything, just go talk to him, sis." I say in a reassuring tone.

She gave me a wierd look but obliged, walking with him out into the living room. I got up and tip-toed over to the dinning room entryway, motioning for the others to follow.

"Come on, it's time to see how this turns out," I say in a whisper. When they came over, we peeked out from behind the entryway listening in on their conversation.

"Soo, what did you need to talk about, Dave?"

The brown haired cop rubbed the back of his neck nervously, from where we were standing it was easy to see the slight blush on his face. "Well, Kim, I've been thinkin' and I wanted to know, would you ...like to good on a date sometime?"

Kim looked at him with wide eyes, "y-you want to g-go on a date, with me?" She said in a surprised tone.

"Yeah, buts it's okay if you don't want to! I just thought it'd be ni-." He stopped talking when Kim put a finger on his lips.

She smiled and blushed. "You don't know how long I've been waiting for you to ask me that, do you?"

"To be honest, no, lets just say a few little voices told me."

"It was my brothers, wasn't it?"

"Uhh ...Yeah."

"I should have know as much," Kim said in a unsurprised tone. "So about this date …?"

"Well, I was thinking maybe we could go out somewhere tomorrow night, I'll pick you up at 7, then we can-" before he could finish his cellphone started ringing, David groaned and took his phone out his pocket to answer it.

"Hello! ...oh hey mom, what's up ...alright, ...he did what! ….okay I'll be home soon! …love you too, bye." He sighed and hung up the phone. "Sorry Kim I've got to go, my dad's drunk out of his mind again, I'll talk to you tomorrow, okay?"

"Sure, just don't forget our date."

"Hehe~ don't worry, I won't, tell the others I said bye."

Kim moved over to the front door and opened it for him, it was already dark outside, if I had to guess I'd say it was around 11:30ish maybe. David walked outside, but not before giving big sis a quick kiss on the cheek, then hurrying to his car.

Kim closed the door and locked it, then she touched the spot where David had kissed her and smiled. I walked out to her and sat on the couch acting as if I didn't see anything.

"So how did it go," I asked smirking.

"You and Ant' really are something ya know that, right?" She said, slightly annoyed, "but ...thanks."

"Don't thank just us, Rika and Hanyu helped out too, you should also be thanking them." I then stood up and stretched, yawning. "Man I'm beat, I'm gonna go hit the shower and go to bed, can you help clean the dinning room and the kitchen for me."

"Sure, go take your shower, I'll see you tomorrow."

"Alright then," I started walking up stairs to my room, but stopped halfway when Kim called me again.

"Oh yeah, Kev?"

"Huh?"

"Thanks again, for ya know, helping me out."

I nodded and continued up the stairs to my room. "No prob, that's what siblings are for after all."

**~ ~ ~(Part3)~ ~ ~**

I woke up at around 2:15 in the morning, I had to pee badly, so I rushed out of my room to the bathroom. Making sure not to make any noise to wake up everyone else. When I was done, I walked through the hall back to my room, Rika and Hanyu were a sleep in Antoine's room, and Ant' was in my room on a sleeping bag at the foot of my bed. Deciding that my sleep could wait I walked over to Antoine's room to check on the to Furude family members.

I turned the nod and opened the door slowly so not to wake them, only thing was that they weren't a sleep at all. Rika was sitting on the window seal with the window wide open, looking out at the view of downtown Philadelphia, drinking what looked like grape juice. But knowing her character I knew it was most likely some wine from Kim's collection.

Hanyu sat by her on the floor, talking to her, looking out the window also. "The city looks amazing, doesn't it Rika?"

"Yeah it does, it's nothing like Hinamizawa at all," Rika said taking a sip of wine. "But sometimes change is a good thing, so I'm not complaining."

"That's good to hear," I said surprising the both of them.

"Oh, Kevin-San, we didn't hear you come in." Hanyu said.

I closed the door, so that Kim won't see Rika drinking if she woke up, and walked over to them. "Ya know Rika, minors aren't suppose to be drinking, it's a law around here."

"Well, as long as I don't get caught, it should be fine," Rika said with a shrug, and continued drinking the alcohol.

I sighed, if she does get caught I'll have to explain to Kim why a 12-13 year old is drinking wine, and I'm really not looking forward to that. But her drinking wasn't the only problem here. "Um ...Rika, why are you in the window?"

"Huh? What do you mean, I do this all the time back in Hinamizawa?"

"Yeah that's true, but ya see, here we have a lot of shoot ou-." Before I could finish my sentence, 5 loud gun shots rang out from outside, I hurried and pulled Rika out the window spilling wine on my clean undershirt, and Hanyu let out a surprised cry, dropping to the floor covering her ears.

After I was sure the gun shots were over, I pulled the window down to a crack, sighing.

"Auauau~ Kevin-San, are they done?" Hanyu asked, I could tell from her shaky voice that she was really scared.

I bent down and patted her head, "yeah, they stopped shooting, you can get up now."

Rika gave me a shocked look and asked, "do they shoot guns often here?"

I helped Hanyu to here feet, nodding. "Sadly yes they do, rule number one of living here: never stick your head out the window when the street lights come on, follow that rule and you'll survive here."

"But ...w-why were they s-shooting?" Hanyu asked in a shaky voice.

"To tell the truth, I have no idea, drugs maybe," I said, then I smiled at her. "Now you two get some sleep, I'll see you in the mornin'."

"Okay, Oyasuminasai, Kevin-San." They both said, though Hanyu's voice was still a bit shaky.

"Oyasuminasai, to you too, sleep tight, and no more sticking your head out the windows," I said closing the door behind me. Yep, things were defiantly going to get a lot more interesting.

* * *

><p>The next chapter will be out soon, now I'm off to bed, rest is the best thing for a creative mind. Peace~<p> 


	6. Chapter 5: Downtown Shopping Pt1

Finally I back and with a new chapter! Sorry for the wait, I had things to do, like off the computer type stuff, anyway thank you all who reveiwed the last chapter! you guys are so awesome. Enjoy!

* * *

><p>Chapter 5: Downtown Shopping Pt1<p>

_Beep! Beep! Beep!-click_...

I woke up the next morning at around 8 o'clock, sleepy as ever. All the things that happened yesterday really tried me out, it all felt like a dream but it wasn't, it was real.

I sat up and yawned, wiping the crust out my eyes. It was Monday, a day I hated because of one thing ...school. Even though this week was my last week, thank god, I still hated it. My mom always used to say 'that school is a child's only job, so getting good grades is like getting a pay check!' But, my 'pay check' was low, really low. I was just barely passing.

After sitting there for a while just starring off into space, I sluggishly got out of bed and started my morning routine. I brushed my teeth, washed my face, fixed my hair, and started getting dressed.

At my school we had to wear a uniform, the boys wore black pants and a white shirt with a green blazer over it that had the school symbol on the breast pocket. The girls had to wear a female version of the boys uniform; a black knee high skirt, the shirt could be either yellow or white, and a green blazer.

When I was done dressing, I grabbed my school books and put them into my backpack, then headed down stairs.

The house was totally quite, the only thing that was making any sound was the TV someone had left on. It was around 8:30 so that meant Kim was at work and Antoine had already left for school. I sighed, dropping my bag on the couch and walked into the kitchen.

Hmm~ I wonder, What should I make for breakfast? I didn't feel like making anything big, so maybe I could make eggs, bacon, pancakes and orange juice. Yeah, that sounds like a nice meal to me!

I smiled and went to the frig to get the bacon, eggs and butter. That's when I noticed a small, pink sticky note on the door. I took it off and read it to myself, it was from Kim.

"_To Kevin- sense Rika and Hanyu will be staying with us for a while, I left my bank card home so you could take them shopping today. And don't worry I've already called the school and told them you wouldn't be coming in. oh yeah, my cards on the TV stand, you already know the code. - from your awesome big sister. P.S- If you lose my card I'll kill you~!"_

I sighed, balling up the note and tossed it into the trash. "I guess I'm not going to school today." I opened the frig, taking out the things I needed, then closed it.

I took 2 pans out the cabinet for the pancakes and eggs, then I cut on the oven and put the bacon on, while it cook I made my way up stairs to wake up the girls.

"Hey guys, you awake yet?" I said, lightly knocking on the door. "Guys …," When no one responded I slowly open the door and looked over in Antoine's bed, only to come across the cutest site I've ever seen in my enter life. Hanyu and Rika were cuddled up together as if they were twins, sleeping peaceful without a care in the world.

"Aww~ it's such a shame I have to wake them up," I cooed, which now that I think about it was pretty weird, my voice has never sounded like that before.

I let them sleep for a while longer before I walk over to the window and opened up the curtain, letting the sun light shine on their faces. "Rika, Hanyu! Raise and shine!"

It took a second or so before they both let out a groan, sitting up rubbing their eyes tiredly. Hanyu was the first one to speak. "Good morning, Kevin-San ..." she said before yawning.

Rika sat there stretching her arms and legs. "Mii~ What time is it …?"

"Close to 9 in the morning," I answered, "we've got places to go today so you two get ready."

"Okay ...where's the bathroom?" Rika asked as she hopping out bed.

"It's down the hall to your left."

She nodded and walked out the room, leaving me and Hanyu alone. "So ...how'd you sleep, Hanyu?"

"Oh ...I slept great, the bed was really comfortable." She said with a shy smile, "so where are we going today? Is it somewhere important?"

"Not really, we just have to go get you two some cloths and such," I answered, then I started out the room motioning for her to follow. I walked to the hallway closet, which was right across from the bathroom, and handed her some new washcloths and tooth brushes from out of it.

"Here, you both get cleaned up, then come down stairs to eat, okay?" I instructed.

"Alright," She nodded.

I turned and started walking back down stairs, when I got to the kitchen, the bacon was already almost done. I turned down the oven, then I put the skillet on the stove and started fixing the eggs. It was around that time I felt something rub up against my leg, I jumped slightly before I looked down and noticed it was Bernkastle.

"Oh hey Bern, I haven't seen you all morning!" I keeled down to the cats level. "You must be hungry, huh?"

She gave a small meow as if answering my question, I chuckled a little and pet her head. "Hmm~ Let see, what should I feed you? ...Oh, I know! How about tuna!" I have no idea why cats loved tuna so much, but when I opened the can of fish and laid it in front of her, she ate it like she hadn't eaten in weeks.

I smiled and went back to cooking. I wonder how today will go? maybe I should show the girls around a little after we're done shopping.

It only took me about 15 minutes for me to finish the last of the food, after all the plates were set out on the table, Rika and Hanyu walked into the dinning room smiling.

"Mii~ This smells really good sir, what did you make this time?" Rika asked taking her seat at the table.

Hanyu took the seat next to her and stared at the food in front of her, drooling slightly. "Auauau~ these pancakes smell sweet, like chocolate".

I laughed a little. "That's because they're chocolate chip pancakes silly, along with eggs and bacon, go on, eat up you two there's a lot more if you want seconds."

the girls both clapped their hands together and said. "Itadakimasu," before digging in. Hanyu took one bite then a dreamy look appeared in her eyes.

"Wow! So good, it tastes like the sweets at Angel Mort!" She said taking another bite, and another.

"Mii~ this really is good sir, and the eggs are just right, not too salty at all." Rika praised.

"Thanks guys, I'm glad you like it," I sat at the table and started eating myself. I felt like the luckiest guy in the world right now, things were really looking up for me.

When we had finished breakfast, I did the dishes and swept the floors while the girls cleaned off the table. Afterward I gave Bern some fresh water when she finished her tuna, I'm going to have to tell Kim to buy some cat stuff later, like cat food and a liter box. Sigh~ I don't think sis would be too happy about having cat pee on the floors.

And it seems like right when I thought that, Bern decided she had to go and started peeing on the kitchen floor. I hurried, picking up the small cat and held her over the now empty sank. Stepping in some of the pee.

"Damn it, now like I've got to change my socks!" I said angrily, then I looked up at the cat I was holding. "Thank a lot, Bern."

Bern tilted her head to the side slightly in confusion, giving a meow. I just sighed, placing the kitten on the ground before walking off to find a mop, and to change my socks.

**~ ~ ~(Part2)~ ~ ~ **

I waited at the front door while Rika went to go get her shoes, the same shoes she wore when she first appeared here. Hanyu, unfortunately, didn't have anything to wear besides the red and white miko outfit and she was bear foot. But, luckily, after some looking around I found a pair of green flip-flops for her to use until we stopped at a contain person's house, a very close friend of mine.

"So Hanyu, how do they feel?" I asked as she slipped the flip-flops onto her feet, "they aren't too big, are they?"

She tapped her foot a few times, then turned to me and shuck her head. "Nope, they fit just fine, thank you for letting me use them."

"Don't worry about it," I said. "You needed them more then Antoine anyway."

Rika came down stairs a moment or so later and walked over to us. "Mii~ are we all set to go, sir?"

I nodded. "Yeah, we're going to make a quick stop at a friend of mine's house to get Hanyu some new cloths."

"What's wrong with the cloths she's wearing now?" Rika asked, slightly confused.

"Well, ya see, people don't really dress like that around here," I explained. "The only ones that do are cosplayers, or when Halloween comes around. So to make sure she doesn't stick out too much she needs something new, but at the same time I want her to look fly, that's why we're stopping at my friends house first."

"Auauau~ what does, um ...'looking fly' mean?" Hanyu asked in a shy, timid voice.

I laughed, more so at myself then at Hanyu, I completely forgot they don't know know anything about slang. "Haha~ it means to look fresh, or to look good in something, but don't worry I'll tell you all about slang later. Oh yeah and before I forget …," I walked over and got Kim's card from off the TV stand. "Now we're ready, let's go girls."

I opened the front door and we walked outside, the sun was shining brightly today, it wasn't too hot out yet and the cool morning air felt just right. I look in my pocket to see if I had my keys and my cell phone, after confirming that I did, I closed and looked the door, wiggling it a few times before we started walking up the street towards our destination.

Rika and Hanyu looked at everything in awe, which was to be expected, they did come form a small rural village in 1983. As we continued our walk I started to tell them where places were and how life was around my neighborhood.

"Over there is the corner store, Papi's, my friend Carlos helps his family run the store during the summer for extra money," I explained to them. Pointing over towards the small store at the end of the street, I actually spotted Carlos walking out the glass doors. "That's him right there. Yo Carlos, what's up!"

Carlos, a short Hispanic boy with brown hair and light skin, looked over at me and waved. "Nothin' just chillin' you know how I do! Hit me up on my cell later homes!"

"I'll be sure to do that!"

"Aight, say what's up to-" Carlos was about to say something else when a female voice from inside the store yelled something at him in Spanish, from the sound of the voice, it was most likely Carlos' mom, Maria. He stoop his foot down on the ground and went back inside yelling something in the same language.

"Well it looks like someone did something they weren't suppose to," I said smirking, Carlos never could stay out of trouble for long.

There wasn't many people outside, most of the older kids were either in school or in the house. Hanyu and Rika did get a few weird looks from people who we passed by, which made Hanyu kinda nervous.

"Auau~ why are t-they starring at us like that?" Hanyu asked nervously.

I patted her on the head to calm her down, "I told you people around here don't dress like that nor do they have purple or blue hair, so they probably think your a weirdos or something. Trust me, I know how you feel." And that was the truth, I really did know how she felt. People looked at Antoine the same way when he walk outside one day cosplaying as Ken from Street Fighter. That was so embarrassing!

"My friends house is right down the next block, so you won't be getting funny looks for long."

We turned at the next corner on 10th in Brown, the road was so small that only one car could drive down at a time, there was a row of houses on both sides and a Chinese store down at the end of the street across from a bar, which was closed right now. I took Hanyu and Rika's hand, leading them down the small block to a house with a green door and a mailbox that said '1256' on it.

"Well this is the place," I said before I rang the doorbell. It took a few seconds before a voice came from the other side of the door.

"Who is it?"

"It's me Erika," I answered.

the removal of a chain lock could be heard, then the door opened reveling a light skinned Hispanic girl that was about two years older then me with brown eyes, long black hair, wearing sweat pants and black tank-top, she was tall around 6'2 or 6'1, she wore a D-cup bra, and she wasn't fat, but she wasn't skinny either uh, ...whats the word I'm looking for ...Hmm, pudgy. But she was still very cute and attractive.

"Kevin, why are you here so early in the morning?" She asked sleepily.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you or anything, I just need your help with something really quick."

Erika rubbed her eyes and looked at me, "help you with what?" She asked, then she looked behind me. "And who you got with ya, Kev~?"

"Oh, well this is Rika," I said pointing at blue haired girl, then I pointed to Hanyu. "And this is her cousin, Hanyu."

"Okay ...Rika's a name I've heard of before, but Hanyu?" She said raising an eyebrow. "It's sounds like something out of a Manga. Anyway, it's nice to meet you both."

"It's nice to meet you too, Erika-San," Hanyu gave a slight bow.

"Mii~ It's nice to meet you also," Rika said bowing. " Kevin-San told us that you were a friend of his."

Erika nodded, smiling. "yeah we are, we've been kids sense we were kids. So what is it Kev'? Your here this early so it must be important. And ...shouldn't you be in school right now ...?"

"I was gonna go, but ya see Rika and Hanyu are staying at my house for a while, so Kim left a note saying I had to take them shopping today," I explain.

"Okay but that still doesn't explain why your at my house."

"Well, Hanyu needs some new cloth, she can't go down town dressed like this, can she?" I asked, pointing at Hanyu's cloths. "Besides you told me on the phone last week that you were working on some new clothing designs, so I brought you a cute model."

Erika looked Hanyu over, as if she was mentally taking her measurements, and gave a one sided grinned. "Hmm~ ...I have been looking for someone to try out my new cloths ...okay, you've caught my attention. Come on in you three." She motioned us all inside closing and locking the door behind us.

"Take a seat, I'll be right back!" She said running up the stairs.

We all took a seat on the living room couch, I've been to Erika's house before and it was pretty big, she had 2 floors, a basement, a kitchen, 2 bathrooms and a backyard.

Ever sense we were little, Erika has always had one dream, to become a fashion designer. She started off small by making customs for little kids before Halloween, but then she got into Anime and started making cosplay cloths. actually, the time I told you about when Antoine had cosplayed as Ken that day, Erika was the one that made it, and she did a pretty good job. Though, every now and then she'd make something original for fun, making cosplay and selling it over the internet was what played the bills. She just moved out of her parents house this year when she turned 19.

She came down stairs a couple of minutes later holding three hangers, each one had its own style of clothing on it. "I'm back~, Alright so lets see what we can do." she put each of the cloths up to Hanyu to see what would look best on her, after some thinking the Hispanic girl smiled and took Hanyu by the hand. "Come with me into the kitchen, please."

"O-okay," the horned girl replied before being dragged away.

"So your friend designs cloths?" Rika asked.

"Yep, she the best designer in the neighborhood," I answered smiling. "She's always had this dream when we we're little about being a fashion designer, having her own clothing line and stuff like that. I really do hope her dream comes true."

"You both must be really close, huh?"

I nodded. "Yeah, we met when I was 2 years old, her mom and my mom were best friends sense high school, so were sorta like brother and sister in a way."

"Mii~ that's nice, I've always wanted a brother or sister, but it just wasn't fated to happen," Rika said sadly.

"Well I wouldn't say that, you and Hanyu are more like sisters to each other then cousins ...to me anyway."

Rika looked over at me and smiled. "You really think so, sir?"

"Yep, no doubt, you've both been through a lot in the passed 100 or so years, so it's only natural to have a close bond like being sisters. Besides don't you feel like you can tell Hanyu anything?"

"Yeah I do," She whispered. "I guess we are sorta like sisters."

"Okay guys, she's ready, come and see!" Erika called a few moments later from the kitchen.

Me and Rika stood up and walked into the kitchen. Erika was standing in front of Hanyu with her hands on her hips, grinning. "Behold, after a full week my master piece is finish!" she moved aside and there was Hanyu with a slight blush on her cheeks.

She was just the cutest thing! Hanyu was now wearing a purple skirt, thigh high stockings, the shirt was blue and had small cherry blossom flower designs on it, the outfit also came with matching colored bracelets, and a purple ribbon that was tied to one of Hanyu's horns, which made them look more like cosplay now. All in all she looked great.

"So tell the truth, how does she look?" Erika walked next to me and through her arm around my shoulder. "Does she look okay to you?"

"Okay ...she's more then okay! She looks awesome! You changed her look from miko to diva in just 5 minutes," I said in awe.

"Hehe~ well ya know, I try."

Rika walked over to Hanyu and smiled brightly, saying. "That looks great on you, I barely noticed you for a second there."

"Thanks Rika ...but they feel sorta weird, I'm not used to wearing these types of cloths," she said, playing with the hem of the shirt.

"That's to be expected considering you've had nothing to wear but that miko outfit," Erika said as she let go of my shoulder. "Anyway, now that you got her some new gear, where are you guys goin' to shop?"

Hmm, I never really thought of where to go, there's always cherry hill mall, but the gallery's closer it's practically right done the street.

"I was thinking maybe downtown, it's closer and from what I remember their having a 50% off sale on kids cloths." I answered.

The tall black haired girl nodded. "I see you've thought this through, well, wait right here while I get ready."

"Wait a minute, your coming too?"

"Psst, well duh! I can't let you take 2 girls shopping alone, and what better way to get things done faster then by me, a girl, going with you. Besides, I need to stop at the materiel store anyway."

In a way what she said made sense, I had no idea what things girls needed, or fashions not to mention underwear ...and bras, if needed. So her coming along might not be such a bad idea.

"Fine, just hurry up, it's already ..." I pulled out my cell phone and looked at the time. "10:15, we need to hurry up before people buy up everything on sale."

"Okay, okay, give me just 5 minutes."

Me, Rika and Hanyu walked out into the living room, while Erika continued up the steps to her room to change. She said '5 minutes' but we ended up waiting a whole freakin' half hour before she finally came back down stairs.

"It took you long enough! What the hell were you doin'?" I ask, slightly annoyed.

"Sorry, I had to find my money and take a list of what supplies I need from the material store," she answered. "But I'm ready now, so lets get going there's only so much time in the day."

Erika opened the front door and walked out, Rika and Hanyu followed her but I just stood there for a moment before sighing. 'Today's going to be troublesome, I can feel it." I thought before I walked out myself, closing and locking the door behind me.

It was only when we got to Erika's car on the other side of the street, that I noticed what she was wearing. A white T shirt, skinny jeans with a rip in the knee, black Nike's and her hair was tied up into a pony tail.

Erika unlocked the doors and sat in the drivers seat, buckling her seat belt. "Will get in, your not going to just stand there are you?" She said, closing the door.

Rika and Hanyu sat in the back of the car, while I sat next to Erika in the passenger seat. "You know there might not be anywhere to park downtown, right?" I said.

She just shrugged, putting the keys in the ignition. The second the car started music blast out the speakers almost blowing my eardrums before she turned it down.

"Sorry about that."

"It's fine lets just go, okay?"

She nodded and was about to put her foot on the gas, before she turned back and looked at the two girls in the back seat. "Hey who wants ice cream, I'm paying?"

Rika and Hanyu raised their hand, smiling. "I do!" They both said.

"How about you, Kev'? They said it's gonna be warm today, if you don't answer I might just take back my offer."

I sighed, looking out the window. "Just get me a lemon water ice and I'm good."

"Okay then, looks like we're making a quick stop at Rita's water ice then, hold on everyone!" And with that we drove off down the street, towards the gallery, hopefully it's not too crowded.

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><p>Well that's chapter 5, the next chapter will be out soon. Also reveiw, tell me what you think so far and what I should fix. Peace~<p> 


	7. Chapter 6: Downtown shopping pt2

I'm baccckkk~! Man it's sure has been a long time, but I'm back to working on this story. So know that that's done and over with, ...Enjoy the new chapter!~

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><p>Chapter 6: Downtown shopping pt2<p>

I ate my last spoon full of water ice as we drove down the street towards our finial stop. Looking out the window I saw that most of the people walking around had on their work uniforms, which was to be expected since in was the beginning of the week.

"Well, here we are, that did take a bit longer then I expected, but at least we finally found a parking space." Erika said, as she parked the car.

It took us about a half hour to drive to Rita's water ice, then after Erika got Rika and Hanyu's ice cream and my lemon water ice it took another fifteen minutes just to find a place to park the car. But, I sorta expected it since downtown never has many available parking spaces to begin with, and it always so crowded.

But at least we were only a few blocks away from the gallery, so it won't take too long walking there.

"Mii~ I don't think it took us that long, sir," Rika said licking her vanilla ice cream cone. "It only seemed like that because we had to find a place to park."

"Yeah, Rika's right I guess, but anyways," I turned and smiled at the two little girls in the backseat. "So you two ready for an adventure? Downtown can get pretty crazy sometimes, but that's what makes it fun."

Rika nodded. "Mii~ I'm up for it!"

"Good, how about you, Hanyu?"

"Auau~ I-I'm ready too," Hanyu answered in a somewhat shy tone.

"Alright, it looks like we're all set to go," I said, giving Erika a thumbs up.

She nodded and unlocked the doors. "Okay, then lets hurry along, we've got a whole lot to buy~!" Erika said in a sing-song voice as she got out the car.

The three of us followed her, getting out of the car also. After she locked the doors and put money in the meter, we began our walk toward the mall. While we did I started pointing out different places and landmarks to them.

"Ya see guys, there are a lot of places here in Philly to visit, and since you're technically tourist, showing you around might not be such a bad idea," I said grinning at them. I then pointed to our left towards a huge sky scrapper like building with an ambulance driving into it, along with a lot of people wearing doctors suits. "That tall building right there is Jefferson hospital. Me, Antoine, and Kim were all born there. It also has a bank inside it too."

"Oh really, I had no idea you were all born in the same hospital, sir," Rika said, taking another lick of her ice cream cone. Then she looked over at Erika. "So, what hospital were you born in, Erika-San?"

"Oh, well, I was born in childrens hospital. It's all the way in south Philly, I'll show you guys sometime if your interested." The tall Hispanic girl answered with a smile.

"Auauau~ Kevin-San, um, what that place over there?" Hanyu asked, pointing towards the small store on the corner across from us. It had a sign with an Italian man in a chefs hat holding up a slice of pizza, about eat it, and above the man. It had the name Joe's in big, bold letters.

The aroma of hot pizza could be smelled from blocks away, and by the look in Hanyu's eyes, it was easy to tell the smell was getting to her also.

"That over there, Hanyu. Is Joe's pizza, they make some of the best pizza in Philadelphia and there pretty popular around here, a lot of good things happened there," I answered with a sad smile.

I remember the smell restaurant well, my whole family used to come here all the time before my parents passed away … a lot of good memories were spent at this place.

There was the time when me and Kim got into a food-fight, tossing huge slices of half eaten pizza at each other. Luckily for us old man Joe, the owner of the restaurant, and his wife Anna were nice enough not to kick us out. But man, that night when we got home, mom and dad told us off big time. Kim and I got put on punishment for like two whole weeks after that. Now that I think about it, I was a pretty stupid kid back then ...so much good pizza I could have eaten waste on a freakin' food-fight!

Oh yeah, and how could I forget the time dad spilled Pepsi on mom's new sundress! Haha~ mom was so pissed at him and she didn't talk to him the whole drive home, even after he apologized. She even said something like "tonight your not getting any." Of coarse, I was too young to understand what that meant at the time.

But, I finally understood once dad gave me 'the talk'.

I sighed slightly, looking into the pizza restaurant window. There was one family that sorta reminded me of mine, the little boy who had to be around the age of nine was talking with his younger siblings, laughing and joking around. So many fun times, I'd be lying if I didn't say I missed those days. But those carefree days ended when my parents died.

"Yo, Kevin …Kevin!"

"Huh?" I looked up and saw the girls starring at me with a worried expression on theirs faces, Erika had been calling me this whole time, but I was too caught up in my memories to notice.

"You okay, Kev? Your looking sorta down," Erika said softly.

"I'm fine, really, it's nothing."

"Mii~ Are you sure, Kevin-San?" Rika asked, "I've never seen you look this sad before."

I looked at the young miko, giving her a sad smile. "It's nothing, i-it's just ...I had a lot of good times here with my family."

"Are you thinking about your parents? You know I'm here if you ever want to talk about it," Erika said, putting a hand on my shoulder. "I can't say I know how you feel, because my parents are still here, but you can still talk to me anytime you need to."

I nodded and smiled at Erika, I really did love her, she was like the sister I never had. "Thanks, Erika. But I'm fine ...lets just get goin', shall we." I started walking ahead of them, crossing the street when the light finally turned green.

The others quickly followed, walking next to me as we made our way through the crowded city streets. It had been silent between us for a good four minutes now.

"Um, Kevin-San." Hanyu said suddenly, breaking the silents. I looked down at her, showing that I was listening, and she continued. "What ...exactly happened to your parents?"

I sighed, I'd completely forgotten that I never told Hanyu about that, so I guess she was going to ask eventually. "Well, they died, in a car crash a few years ago."

"Oh ...I'm sorry for asking, it's just that-!"

"Hanyu, it's okay, I'm not hurt or anything like that by you asking about my parents," I said interrupting her. "Besides it would be pretty mean to leave you in the dark about it after I already told Rika."

"Auauau~ ...but I-," Hanyu stopped and didn't say anything else, she still had a sad look on her face as if she was guilty or something, even though she had nothing to feel guilty for. After a moment, I grinned when I got a good idea of how to cheer her up. I truly am a genius!

"Ya know, Hanyu ...the gallery has a lot of candy stores and bakery's. Actually, one of my favorite places happen to sell ….cream puffs."

Hanyu stopped in her tracks and looked up at me. "Auauau~ c-c-cream puffs?"

I nodded as grin on my face turned into an all-out smile. "Yep, you heard me right, cream puffs. Freshly made too, and don't even get me started on their chocolate bars, cup cakes, chocolate chip cookies, apple pies, lollipops ...oh yeah, and my personal favorite, caramel squares!"

By the time I was done talking, Hanyu stood there with stars in her eyes and drool coming out of her mouth. Man, this girl had a major sweet tooth!

"Auauau~ they have all of that?" She asked in a dreamy tone.

"Yep, and so much more."

"Wait, your talkin' about Madam Margret's bakery, right?" Erika asked, coming in between us.

"Yeah, we haven't been there in a while though," I replied. "Maybe we should take the girls there after we're done, does that sound good to ya?"

"Hmm~ well I do have a craving for some caramel apples, so ...yeah I'm in!" Erika exclaimed, taking the drools goddess and the blue hair miko's hand, walking down the sidewalk. "Let's go you two, the sooner we finish shopping, the faster I can sank my teeth into some delicious sweets!"

I sighed as I looked around, everyone was starring at us, well more so Erika then me but it was still sorta embarrassing. I ran to catch up to the other. When we got to the broad street, I could already see the Burlington coat factory across from us, now all we had to do was walk through and take the back entrance and we'd be on the gallery's second floor.

As we waited for the light to change I tapped both of the little girls on the shoulder, when they looked up at me, I smiled and looked to my left pointing up towards city hall, which a no more then a few blocks away. "You two see that tall white building right there with the black statue on it."

"Yes," the two girls answered.

"That's city hall and the statue of the man on top of it is William Penn."

"Mii~ ...Who's William Penn?" Rika asked curiously.

My eye twitched as I felt the urge to face-palm myself. I should have know she wasn't going to know how William Penn was. "Well Rika, William Penn in the founder Pennsylvania, he's also the first great hero of American liberty. I ...don't really know much else other then that."

"Well, That's what happens when you don't pay attention in class, Kev~," Erika said smugly, smirking. "Maybe you should sleep more at home and not as much in the classroom."

"Shut up, Erika! Nobody asked you!"

Erika just laughed and crossed the street when the light turned green. I followed the three girls and muttered under my breath. Then We walked into Burlington coat factory.

As we made our way through the store, Erika stopped for a quick moment, looking at some of the purses and handbags they had on sell.

"Yo, Kev! Take a look at these," she said, as she took two purses off the shelf. One was a plain, light blue color and the other was a dark purple one with a flower design on it. "Don't you think these would look great with Rika and Hanyu's outfits? It really matches their hair."

I nodded, the bags did match both of their hair colors. "Yeah, I'll admit they look nice, but let's focus on getting them the important stuff first, then we'll worry about accessorizes." I said looking at the two bags.

Erika sighed, shrugging and put the bags back with the others. "Fine, but we should really get this when we come back."

"Okay, okay, let's just hurry up before people buy everything that's on sell, it would be a real pain in the ass if that happened," I replied. She nodded and continued walking ahead.

Rika and Hanyu were looking at some of the outfits on the hangers as we walked passed them. There were a lot of people in the store, but not as many as I'd expected, usually people came in hordes when ever a half off sell happened. Hell, you should see how packed it is on black Friday!

It didn't take us long before we exited out of the back entrance of the huge store, I looked over at the dark skinned security guard and gave him a nod. He nodded back and continued his job watching out for shoplifters or anyone suspicious.

I turned to the two girls, smiling. "Rika, Hanyu. Welcome to the Philadelphia gallery!" I said, giving a dramatic bow. Which caused a few people to look at me, but I didn't really care.

"Mii~ this place is so big!" Rika said in awe as she looked around.

Hanyu nodded her head in agreement. "Auau~ it's way bigger then the shopping center in Okinomiya!"

"Oh yeah, come here for a seac," I walked over to to the rail and looked on the first floor. Then I pointed towards one of my favorite places to shop. "You see that store right there with the big sign on it?"

they both leaned over, and nodded. "Yeah."

"That's Gamestop, they sell video games and other things like that, both new and old, they even have game tournaments from time to time and whoever come out on top gets a whole lot of cash."

"Wow, so they sell video games there? The same games we were playing yesterday?" Hanyu asked with excitement in her voice.

"Hehe~ yep, all kinds from first person shooters, all the way to adventure," I answered smirking.

"Mii~ we should go there when we have time, sir," Rika said. "Ever since yesterday, Hanyu's been really interested in the whole video game thing."

"Oh really now, okay we'll stop by there once we're done buying what you guys need, but first things first," I grabbed both their hands and started walking towards Old Navy. They did have some of the best clothes after all, and the best sells. "We're buying you both some new clothes!"

Erika walked next to us and said. "Ya know, now that I think about it, I haven't been to Old Navy in a while."

"Me neither, I've never really had a reason to come shopping until now."

We walked into the clothing store and took the stairs up to the second floor where the kids department was, the boys clothes were on the left side of the room and the girls clothes were on the right, and as I expected, Erika was the first one of us to start picking out outfits.

"Hey, Erika!" I called out to her.

"Yeah!"

"I'm expecting you to work your magic, okay?"

"Hehe~ No problem, just give me a half hour and we'll be done before you know it," she said as she took some clothes off the hangers. "Oh these sundresses look nice, they also need shorts and jeans, and maybe some bathing suits too since the summer times coming up ….Rika, Hanyu! Come over here for a minute!"

"Okay!"

While Erika did what she does best, making the girls try on different outfits to see what looked right for them. I sat down on one of the benches and sighed. I never did like clothe shopping much, I'd most of the time be at the arcade.

But, maybe this time wouldn't not be so bad.

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><p>Wow, it feels so go to finally write this story again, though this has to be one of the shortest chapters I've ever written, but the next chapter will be even longer that's a promise. ~Peace out~<p> 


	8. Chapter 7: Downtown shopping pt3

Hey there guys! Man it's been a while since I've updated this story, and in all truth I've missed writing it. I bet you guys thought the story was dead, but the one thing you should know about me is that I'll never let a story die! ...unless I get bored with it. Hehe, anyway, read and enjoy!

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><p>Chapter 7: Downtown shopping pt3<p>

"Okay, so I think we've gotten everything we need," Erika said, walking back over to me. We'd been in old navy for the past two hours and I wasn't going to lie, I was getting sorta bored in here. The sooner we leave the better. "I got jeans, shorts and skirts, a few shirts, bathing suits, sundresses, some underwear and nightgowns. I think we have everything they're going to wear ...now all we have to worry about is shoes."

"That's good," I said. I looked around and saw that Hanyu and Rika weren't with her. "Um, where are the girls anyway?"

"They went to go get some socks, I already showed then where the aisle was, they should be back in a moment."

I nodded and she sat down on the bench next to me. "So where do you think we should go next?" She asked.

I looked up in thought for a moment, then answered. "Footlocker. I can't really think of anywhere else to get shoes from."

"Footlocker, huh," She said, smiling. "I guess that'll be our next stop then, we'll pay for the clothes and head there, although I was thinking of going to the USA store, they sell shoes too."

"That's true, but the USA store costs more," I said back. "At least at Footlocker we'll get a good deal on stuff. Besides the sooner we get done the faster we can-."

"Go to Gamestop, right?" Erika interrupted, sighing.

I looked back at her, smiling. "You know it~!"

After a minute or so, Hanyu and Rika walked over to us, each of them holding two pack of socks they had choose for themselves.

"Mii~ this store has everything," Rika said happily, holding up her items she had picked. "They even had purple socks with cute little kitty designs on them."

"Auau~ so where will we be going after this, Kevin-San?" Hanyu asked as she put her socks in the cart.

"Well first, we're stopping at Footlocker, then we're going to Gamestop," I answered.

Hanyu looked up at me and asked. "What's 'Footlocker'? Is it a shoe store?"

"Yeah, sorta …it's actually a sneaker store down on the first floor," I said. "Besides, it's not like you can wear flip-flops everywhere you go, I mean some people do that during the summer, but they're not really for running."

"Um ...Mii~ Are you sure your not spending too much on us?" Rika asked, "we don't want to be a burden or anything."

I knelled down to her level and smiled at her. "Rika, as long as your living with us you don't have to worry about a thing, and I honestly don't think the clothes will cost that much." Besides it was my fault that they were here to began with, now I'll think twice before listening to Antoine again. I stood up and started pushing the cart towards the front. "Anyway, lets pay for this stuff, then the real fun will began."

The girls followed me over to the checkout line, there were five other people in front of us so we waited for about ten minutes. When it was finally our turn I started putting the clothes on the counter and the man behind the register rang them up and put them in bags.

"Okay, sir, that'll be two-hundred and sixty-four dollars, please." He said, looking at me. I could only guess that he didn't like his job much because he looked bored out of his mind.

I nodded to the man and pulled out Kim's card. When I swiped it, the man type something into the computer next to him and asked. "Credit or debit?"

"Debit," I answered.

He nodded and type something else in the computer. "Okay, you can put in your code now."

I put in the code ... _1394_, and pressed entire. After I was done the man printed out my receipt and smiled at me, it was a small smile, but a smile none the less. "Thank you for shopping, please come again soon."

"Sure. Thanks."

I grabbed the bags and walked out of the clothing store, Rika and Hanyu walked behind me talking to Erika, I didn't know what they were talking about but from the sound of the two little girls laughter and Erika's grin, I was pretty sure she was telling them stories about the time she'd been down here.

We took the escalators down to the first floor, Gamestop was right across from us, but I started walking to Footlocker instead. It was best to get the important stuff out of the way first.

"Hey, Kev~. We should get Rika and Hanyu's feet measured before we look for something to pick out," Erika said as we walked into the store.

I nodded. "Yeah, your probably right. We should." I then turned to Hanyu and Rika. "You guys go take a seat at the bench over there with Kim, I'll go look for someone to find out your shoe size."

"Okay!" They both said, walking to the bench I'd pointed to. Kim followed behind them, looking at the different sneakers as she did.

I walked through the aisles looking for one of the employees, the store was packed with shoppers, I honestly didn't expect to see so many people in here when we left the house this morning. It didn't take long before I found someone to help. She was a normal sized women, who had to be in her early twenties with blond hair and brown eyes. She was wearing the Footlocker uniform, sitting on a chair, reading one of those gossip magazines.

"Damn, I knew he was cheatin' on her, she'd better throw his ass out the front door, that's what I'd do!" She said loudly.

"Um, excuse me, miss!" I called out.

She looked up from her magazine and smiled. "Yes, what is it kid?"

"I need someone to measure my friends feet," I answered. "If your not too busy, can you do that for me?"

She closed her magazine and laid in on the desk beside her, standing up. "Well, since you asked nicely, sure, why not."

"Hehe~ Thanks," I said smiling.

She waved her hands in a dismissive manner. "No need to thank me, kid. I'm just doing my job anyways."

Once we got back to the other, she bent down and pulled a foot measurement chart from under the bench, Rika, Hanyu and Erika were sitting on. Erika was the first one to greet her and the other two followed right after her.

"It's nice to me you too," the lady said, then she looked over at Rika and Hanyu, smiling. "Now aren't you the cutest little things, what's your name sweetie?"

"Auauau~ I-I'm Hanyu," Hanyu said timidly.

"Mii~ my names Rika," Rika said giving a big smile. "It's nice to meet you also, sir, Nipaa~!"

"Aww~! So cute and polite too! I really hope my kids are like that someday," She cooed. I could tell she was trying hard to resist the urge to hug the two girls. I guess Rika can charm anyone with her cuteness ...and Hanyu too, even though she might not notice it.

"So who wants to get measured first?" She asked.

Hanyu gave her a nervous look, raising her hand slowly. "Um ...I'll g-go."

"Okay, slip off your flip-flops and step on the chart. I'll do you next Rika."

Rika nodded. "Okay, sir."

While she measured their feet I looked on the selves at the different types of sneakers. I saw a few good chooses like Nike's and Adidas, but I wasn't sure if Hanyu and Rika would like those. Well, whatever I'll just have to let them choose. Besides They'll be the ones wearing them anyway.

"Alright, that's about it," the lady said, standing up. Then she pointed to her left. "All of the sneakers in their size should be right in that aisle over there. Do you need anything else?"

I shuck my head. "No, thanks a lot, miss."

"No problem, enjoy the rest of your day." Then she walked away to, mostly likely, finish reading her gossip magazine. "My names Amy by the way!"

"Mii~ thank you, Amy-San!" Rika shouted, waving.

"So," I said turning back to the others, clapping my hands together. "How about we go pick you guys out something nice."

As we walked through the aisle Amy had pointed to, Hanyu was looking on the selves on the left side, while Rika looked at the sneakers on the right side. I went over and helped them after a few minutes since they probably had no idea which ones they wanted out of all the different brands.

"Um ...do you two need help?" I asked standing next to them, they were looking on the same shelf now. "If you can't choose I can tell you all your choices."

"Auauau~ but it's hard to decide," Hanyu said. Pointing to the two she had like out of the rest. "I-I like these ones, but I like these ones too, auauau~! I can't choose between them." She was trying to choose between white Nike's and a pair of black and white Chucks. I was about to give her my thoughts, but, of course, Erika had to put her opinion in before mine.

"I, honestly, think you should get these," Erika said, happily, taking the Chucks from her. "Don't they look cute, Hanyu? Plus they'll match the clothes I picked out for you. Aw~ you'll so cute in these!"

"Auau~ d-do you r-really think so?"

"Heck yeah I do!" She then turned to Rika, "and what about you, Rika? What did you pick out?"

"I picked out these, sir, they looked nice and they're good for playing in." What Rika chose was a pair of black Adidas, her other choose were red and white Jordans. "But I still don't know though, should I get the black shoes? Or the other ones?"

"I say you get the Adidas," I said, as Erika opened her mouth to talk, she glared at me but I continued anyway. "They look nice and they're on sale."

"Mii~ um ...which shoes are those?"

"The black ones," I answered.

She smiled. "Okay, black shoes it is~!" She said putting the Jordans back on the shelf.

"Alright then, lets go to the front," I said grinning. "Then we'll head to Gamestop."

Erika groaned, rubbing her forehead. "You and your video games, I swear your going to rot your brain out someday."

"You're just mad because you suck at games," I said giving a cheeky grin. "Only a person who know the true satiation and thrill of games can appreciate them for what they truly are."

"Sure, whatever. I like games, don't get me wrong, it's just you play too much of them. You and Antoine."

"Yeah, yeah. I've heard this from you before, Erika." I said carelessly. "Let's just pay for this stuff and go."

"Fine, but just so you know I'm stopping the the material store after this, that was one of the reasons I came down here."

I nodded to her, then we started making my way to the front to pay for the sneakers. After this, it would finally be time for the grand tour. Haha~ this is going to be great.

**~ ~(Pt 2)~ ~**

The past three hours have been nothing short of awesome, after we came out of Footlocker. Me, Hanyu and Rika went to Gamestop to check out all the video games they had, while Erika went up to the third floor to stop at the material store to get stuff for her new clothes she was making.

Of course, me being the only guy, I was forced to carry all of the bags. But I didn't complain. I just sat the bags down and rested every once in a while then I'd pick them back up again.

Anyway, the girls had a blast in Gamestop. The store had put a few games out on a flat screen T.V for everyone to play, Rika and Hanyu played 'Super Mario' and 'Sonic The Hedgehog 2' for almost an whole hour straight. If not for the fact that I pulled them away so other some other people could play too, there's no doubt in my mind that they would have played longer then that.

While we looked at the different games for my Xbox, I told them a little bit about video game history like the Atari and Nintendo 64, and my favorite old school systems the first PlayStation and the Sega Dreamcast.

Those were some of the best times in my childhood.

Once we were done there Erika came back to us from the materiel store, luckily though, since it was her bag she didn't make me carry it. Thank god. And of course we couldn't leave Gamestop without buying something, so I ended up buying Guitar hero 3 for all of us to play.

After that we stopped at a few more stores, K-mart -to get washcloths, towels and tooth brushes-, Borders -because I needed the new Umineko manga- and then we had lunch at a great Japanese restaurant in the mall called Hibachi's and then we stop at Madam Margret's bakery just like we'd promised. I swear I've never seen anyone eat some many cream puffs and sweets before meeting Hanyu, how in the hell did she eat so much and still stay slim? Hmm ...maybe it has something to do with her being a goddess. But, either way the food there was awesome.

Right now, we were walking through the shopping center to make one more stop before we went home. I looked down at my cellphone and check the time.

_4:45 ...huh, well it's way later then I thought it was. _I thought, Ant' gets out of school and 3pm and Kim doesn't get back home until eleven ...but since she had a date tonight, she'd probably be even longer then that.

"Alright, guys, we can stop at one more place. Then we have to start heading back home," I said picking up the bags once again. "I don't really trust Ant' in the house by himself for too long. He might burn it down."

"I know, you remember what happened last time right, at thanksgiving," Erika said, with her hand over her mouth, trying to hold in her laughter. "Haha! I swear I've never seen so much smoke come out of a kitchen in my life~!"

I frowned and started walking. "Please don't remind me. I'd rather forget that."

"Mii~ what's that place?" Rika asked, pointing to our left.

I looked over and smiled, it was one of my favorite stores. "Oh ...that's f.y.e, they sell computers, movies, music and electronics."

"Really? Can we go there?"

"I don't know, I mean we should really start getting home."

"Please, sir, pretty please~!" Rika begged cutely, giving me puppy dog eyes.

_Don't fall for it, don't fall for it! _I chanted to myself in my head, but my resolve shattered. Damn, I hate when cute girls give me the puppy dog eyes and I thought Erika was bad.

"Fine …," I said with a sigh. "But this is the last store, alright?"

"Mii~ I understand," Rika said happily. She then took my hand and began leading towards the store. "Let's go, sir~!"

"Okay, okay, there's no need to pull me, Rika," I chuckled.

Inside f.y.e, there wasn't as many people as there was early today. Hanyu and Erika followed behind us as we looked at the different stuff the store had.

"Hey, Kev~, look at this." Erika said holding up a plush toy, it was Japan from Hetalia, I'll admit I never watched the series much, but from the episodes I did see it was pretty funny, it was actually because of that show that my grade in history came up from a D to a B+. Psst~ and they said Anime didn't help with education. "They even have France and England, I swear, I'm buying all of these next time I come down here~!" She finished, walking away to look at the others

"Um ...Kevin-San," Hanyu came over to me and held up another plush toy, but this one had on a miko outfit and had purple hair and black horns. "Is this ...auauau~, is this toy ...me?"

I looked at it, then nodded, grinning. "Yep! Pretty cool having your own toy, isn't it?"

"Mii~ look," Rika said, pointing to the other toys on the shelf next to us. "There's Rena, Satoko, Mion and Shion, and Keiichi-San." She smiled. "It's weird, we look like little voodoo dolls, don't we? ...I wonder what would happen if I stick mine with a needle."

"Auauau~ don't do that Rika! Something bad might happen!"

"Haha! I'm just kidding, Hanyu! You scare too easily."

I smiled and walked towards the music section of the store. They had a lot of albums like Evanescence and Linkin park, and right by that was a CD made by some group called Skillet ...hmm ...I've never heard of them before.

"Mii~ how do you get the music to play," Rika asked, looking at one of the CD she was holding.

I walked over to her and started to explain. "It's quite simple, Rika." I said smiling, taking the CD from her. "All you do is turn the CD over, then scan it under the scanner, and put the head phones on. It's that easy."

"Okay, I think I can do it now, thanks you."

"Sure, anytime you need help, Rika, just ask," I said walking back over to one of the unused CD scanners. I put the head phone on and scanned the CD of Skillet. The song I ended up listening to was called 'Awake and Alive', there were also a few other songs too. I'll admit I liked Skillet. It was ...how do I say it ...cool.

_Hehe~! Looks like I have a new band to add to my Mp3~! _I thought happily taking off the head phones. _I wonder if they have skillet on I-tunes or- …_

I stopped thinking when I heard something, it was someone singing. And whoever it was had a very beautiful voice ...wait a minute, I know this voice, it was ...Rika.

I turned towards the sound of Rika's voice and saw her at the end of the music aisle, singing a song that I knew well. It was 'Breathe No More' by Evanescence. The other surprising thing was that she was singing in her mature, adult voice rather then her cute, little kid voice. Maybe she had the music up too loud to notice it. But even so, I know one thing, her voice was amazing~! I'd heard it before when listening to her character song in Japanese but there was something different about hearing it in real life ...I can't really explain it.

"I've been looking in the mirror for so long.  
>That I've come to believe my souls on the other side.<br>Oh the little pieces falling, shatter.  
>Shards of me,<br>To sharp to put back together.  
>To small to matter,<br>But big enough to cut me into so many little pieces.  
>If I try to touch her,<br>And I bleed,  
>I bleed,<br>And I breathe,  
>I breathe no more~!"<p>

I looked around and noticed that I wasn't the only one listening to Rika sing. I other people in the aisle were looking at her with the look of awe on their faces, and others were tapping their friends, who were listening to their own albums through the head, pointing towards her.

"Take a breath and I try to draw from my spirits well.  
>Yet again you refuse to drink like a stubborn child.<br>Lie to me,  
>Convince me that I've been sick forever.<br>And all of this,  
>Will make sense when I get better~!"<p>

"Oh my god! That was Rika singing?" Erika said, walking next to me. Hanyu was right behind her, giving a shy smile. "Wow, I knew that she had a cute voice, but this, damn the girl's got talent."

"I know, tell me about it," I said, smirking, continuing to listen to Rika.

"I know the difference,  
>Between myself and my reflection.<br>I just can't help but to wonder,  
>Which of us do you love.<br>So I bleed,  
>I bleed,<br>And I breathe,  
>I breathe now...<br>Bleed,  
>I bleed,<br>And I breathe,  
>I breathe,<br>I breathe-  
>I breathe no more~!"<p>

When the song finally came to an end, everyone in the aisle started clapping giving there own comments. "My god, did you hear that little girl sing!"

"Damn, she could be the next child star with a voice like that."

"Mommy, when I get older, can I sing like that," A little girl asked, she looked like she was about three or four.

"Of course you can sweetie, but it takes practice," her mother responded, smiling.

I walked over to Rika with a smile on my face and tapped her on the shoulder. She looked up at me and I motioned for her to take the headphones off.

She when she did, she looked up at me with one of her usual cute smiles. "Mii~ do you need something, sir?"

"No, it's just, you never told me you could sing like that," I said.

Rika gave me a look of confusion."What do you mean? I always sing sometimes."

"In your mature, adult voice," I pointed out, smirking.

"I-I was singing in my real voice?" She asked in a whisper.

I nodded. "Yeah, but don't worry, your voice was actually really nice. You should become a singer."

"Mii~ I don't know, my voice isn't that good."

"Rika you had everyone in the store looking at you," Erika said, standing next to her, patting her on the head. "If that's not a sign of a good voice, then I don't know what is. Don't you agree Hanyu?"

Hanyu nodded. "She's right, Rika, your voice is very beautiful."

"You three really think so?"

"Yeah!" We all said at once.

Rika looked at us and said kindly. "Mii~ Thank you for the complement, sirs!" Then she smiled cutely. "Nipaa~!"

"Aww~ I can't get over it! Your soo cute~!" Erika exclaimed happily, picking Rika up and hugging her tightly to her chest. "You and Hanyu have to be my new fashion models! You just have too!"

"Auauau~ Erika-San! Can you put Rika down please," Hanyu asked, worried. "I-I don't think she can breathe."

"Huh?"

"Sir ...can't ...breathe," Rika breathed out.

Erika quickly dropped the small girl and started brushing her off, with a worried expression. "I'm so sorry Rika! I hope I didn't hurt you."

"It's okay, Erika-San, I'm used to it," Rika said, fixing her sun dress. "One of my friends from home used to do that all the time."

"Oh ...okay, but still sorry, I don't know what came over me."

"So guys," I said, picking up the bags I'd put down. "How about we head on home. It's been a long day and I have to start dinner. Ya don't mind helping me, do you Rika?"

"Of course not, sir, it'll be fun!"

"Hey you don't mind if I come over too, do ya," Erika asked. "I mean it has been a while since I've seen Ant' and had some of your good cooking."

I shrugged. "Sure, I don't mind you coming over, besides your practically family. So you don't have to ask."

"Hehe~ well good," Erika put her arm over my shoulder, smirking. "Because I would have come over anyway ...even if you said not to."

"Yeah, I'm sure you would've."

And with that we all began our trip back to the car, I'll admit today was fun, one of the best days I've had in a long time and I just knew that from now on my life was going to be wayyy~ different now that Rika and Hanyu were here. Though I couldn't help but wonder ..._is this change going to be good or bad?_

I sighed. I guess only time will tell.

* * *

><p>And so ends the Downtown shopping saga, man I just love that word, saga, it has a nice ring to it. Anyway, next chapter will be a time skip, not a big one, don't worry. Summers coming! ...in the story that is. So please review! Give me suggestions or tell me any typos you see that I missed. ~Peace out~<p> 


	9. Chapter 8: Movie Night

Hey guys, guess who's back. And with a new chapter for another one of my stories. I did say I would update all my stories late time didn't I, and here it is! Oh man it feels good to write in first person again, it's way easier for me then writing in third person. Though I still like that style too. Anyway, read and enjoy!

* * *

><p>Chapter 8: Movie Night<p>

Two weeks …!

Had it really been that long?

In all truth I had lost track of time, it was hard to believe that it had been that long since the girls had appeared in my world because of the magic of the monkey paw my grandmother had given me as a gift from India.

So far, everything was going great with Rika and Hanyu, everyday was an adventure. I can say with complete honestly that there has yet to be one bad day in the last few weeks, hell, even rainy days were fun and full of things to do. Even Antoine was having the time of his life, not only was he happy because his birthday was coming up, but ...he got a laugh out of making Hanyu blush and get flustered for some reason.

Though, I just think the whole reason is because he has a crush of her. Not really surprising when you consider how cute she is, any boy his age would probably end up with a crush on the purple haired, cream-puff loving goddess.

Of course, he wasn't the only one having a good time, since Rika no longer had to worry about dying as much as she had to in her world. She seemed a lot more relaxed, and used her real voice a lot more then she used to, though it was only around me, Hanyu, and Antoine, since Kim would probably freak out hearing an grown woman's voice coming from a twelve-year-old's body.

Actually, speaking of Kim. Her and David's relationship was going pretty will, they went on dates and things like that, while at the same time never letting it come in between their jobs as officers of the law. I've never seen Kim smile so much before now, and in a way, I had Rika and Hanyu to think for that.

I no longer had school to worry about, and summer vacation just started not too long ago. I was thinking about getting a job, but I had no idea what I wanted to do yet. I was thinking between Gamestop and Walmart, or something like that.

I stopped what I was doing and sighed. _I could always ask Kim about something, I sure she knows a few jobs that are hiring-. _Before I could finish my thoughts though, Antoine's loud voice came from the living room.

"Kev~, hurry up with the popcorn already, we're about to pick a movie!"

"Alright, damn, give me a minute, Ant'!" I yelled back, as I went back to watching the microwave with my back leaned up against the kitchen sink. Tonight we were doing something that we haven't done in the longest time, since our parents died.

Movie night.

It was all Ants' idea though, he thought that we should show Rika and Hanyu what movies were like this day in age, and how much better they were thanks to all the 'graphics and stuff like that' as he had put it.

We invited quite a few people over to watch the movie with us. First, there was Kim, she got to take the night off from work, along with David, who had decided to tag along with her as well. Then, there was Erika, who had stopped by for Hanyu to see if she could measure her out for one of her newest creations when she was done making it. We had no idea what she was planing on making. But, the literal stars in her eyes told me she was going to go to the extreme.

I thought she'd leave once she, somehow, got Hanyu to promise to try it on. But she stayed once she found out we were doing movie night again. That didn't surprise me all that much though, since she and her mother used to join us when my parents were still alive.

So that was about seven people in total, myself included. So we needed plenty of popcorn for everyone.

Beep! Beep! Beep!

The sound of the microwave alarm went off as the last batch of popcorn finish. I walked over to the cabinet and took out a big red plastic bowl, sitting next to the other bowl, that was already filled to the top with buttered popcorn. I thought would be a good idea to make two different flavors, one bowl filled with butter popcorn, and the other, which I was fixing right now, filled with cheddar cheese popcorn.

After I closed the cabinet, I walked over to the microwave and took out the bag of freshly popped popcorn, being sure not to burn myself.

I opened the bag and dumped the popcorn into the bowl, then I added a little butter and sprinkled some of the cheese powder on it, mixing until all the popcorn was a slight yellow color.

I pick up some in my hand, and tossed it into my mouth, before nodding. "Yep, now that what I call good popcorn!" I said, smiling at myself as I ate the popcorn.

Picking up both the bowls off the counter, I started making my way out to the living room to start the movie. Tonight was going to be fun, I had no doubt about that.

**~ ~(Pt2)~ ~**

"It's about time you got out here, Kevin. I was about to come get ya." Ant' said, as I walked into the living room from the kitchen.

I just turned to him and shrugged. "Yeah, whatever. I had to make sure there was enough popcorn for everyone," I said, before pausing. "That is unless you want to give your share to someone else."

"Nah, No thanks, I'll pass."

"I thought so, brat."

Everyone was quietly waiting in the living room. Rika, Hanyu and Antoine were sitting on the couch in front of the TV, Erika was sitting on the floor on the yellow carpet next to the couch. And David was sitting in the love seat a few inches away, with Kim, who was seated on his lap. There wasn't anyone missing, even Bernkastel was present laying on Ants' thighs, purring as he petted her softly.

I walked over to the coffee table and laid down the two bowls of popcorn, then I walked over to the TV and pulled out a few DVD from the TV set, before turning to everyone that was here.

"Okay, everyone, since we're all settled and the popcorn's ready. Do any of you have an suggestions on what we should watch?" I asked, looking around the room.

Ant' raised his hand. "How about we watch _Apocalypto _that's a pretty good movie," he asked with a hopeful expression.

I shook my head at him. "Nope ...let's watch something we haven't seen in a while, beside you've seen the movie like a thousand times."

"That's only because it's so good." Ant' stated, frowning and continued petting the cat in his lap, giving a small. "But, fine, whatever," but didn't say anything else.

After a moment, Erika was the next one to speak up. Smiling she said, "what do you say to _Next Friday _I mean the movies funny as hell, I think it would give the girls a good laugh."

I thought on it for a moment, then smiled. "_Next Friday _...hmm, alrig-." But before I could finish what I was saying, Kim gave a loud voice of disapproval.

"Not a chance!" She said, calmly.

I looked over at her with a raised eyebrow. "What, why not? There's nothing wrong with that movie."

She signed, saying in a calm tone. "It not for children ...I'm not going to let Ant' and the girls watch something like that."

"Awe~ come on, Kim," Antoine said with a pout. "I've seen that movie a dozen times already!"

"And that's the entire reason you curse so much as it is."

"Mii~ what's this _Next Friday _movie about, Kevin-San," Rika asked, with a curious look on her face. Hanyu had the same look on her face as well.

"Auauau~ is there something in it that we can't see?" The horned goddess asked.

"Well ...I wouldn't say there something wrong with it, I mean, there are some parts in there that aren't for kids. Along with a bunch of curse words, but other then that it pretty kid friendly," I answered, before sighing. "But, Kim said no, so we'll just have to find another movie."

I looked at all the movies in my hands, after a few minutes of trying to make a choice, I got a great idea. "Okay, ya know what …since we can't choose a DVD, how about we do what we should have done in the first place."

"And that would be what exactly…?" David asked.

I smiled, spread the movies out on the coffee table next to the popcorn. "We let Rika and Hanyu decide, I mean they do come from a tiny rural village in Japan. So I'm guessing they haven't really seen America movies before," I answered. After all the DVDs were out in front of them, I motioned the girls over. "So how about it, girls, do you want to choose a movie yourself?"

"Mii~ I don't mind at all, sir." Rika said as she hopped off the couch, walking next to me. Hanyu looked slightly nervous, but followed shortly after her.

They looked at all of the movies on the table, there were actually some of my favorite flicks in with the rest like, _Rush hour _and_ Rush hour 2_, _Dawn of the dead _and _Unleashed_. I was mentally hoping they'd choose one of the four if they could, but it was their choice, not mine. So I had little say in it.

After a minute or some of skimming through the movies, Rika picked up one of the DVD and held it up to me. "Sir~ what about this movie?" She asked with a cute smile.

I took the DVD from her hands and gave a look that said 'really, though?'.

_Wow ...I never thought that she'd pick something out like this, not that it's a bad choice ...but still. _I thought, looking at the case.

The movie Rika wanted to watch was a movie I hadn't seen in a long time, and was, to me, one of the best horror films ever made in the eighties. _A nightmare on elm street 3_, I honestly wasn't expecting the little blue haired miko to pick out something like this. Then again, maybe she had a thing horror and slasher movies.

"Are you sure this is the movie you want to watch, Rika?" I asked, sounding a little unsure.

She nodded her head excitedly, giving a big smile. "Yep, I sure, it seems like a fun movie to watch," she said before beaming a big. "Nipaa~!" At me. I couldn't help but smile back at her, no matter how many times I saw it, her cutest was just too much for some people to bare, ...Like Erika.

"Awe~ ...you are just too cute for words~!" Erika cooed, coming up for behind, taking by surprise and pulling her into a tight hug. It wasn't too tight, but it was tight enough that Rika couldn't get away if she wanted to.

I just sighed, knowing that she would let her go eventually. So I had nothing to worry about. What I was worry about was Hanyu, she was pretty easy to scare and, I mean come on, this is Freddy Krueger we're talking about. He scared the hell out of me as a kid!

"Hey, Hanyu," I called as I turned to her. She turned to me and I continued while holding up the movie. "Do you want to watch this or do you want to choose something else?"

"Well ...I-I don't know, what movie is that?"

"Oh, It's a really _scary_ movie with blood and gore and death on every scene," I said in a spooky voice, giving an playful yet evil smirk while making it sound creeper then the movie really was.

"Auauau~ S-s-scary, how scary is it, exactly?" Hanyu asked with a scared expression.

"So scary, you might not be able to sleep once you see it for the first time. I stayed up a whole week because of this movie when I was little, just ask Kim," I said, chuckling at the thought. "So, that's why I was asking if you wanted to watch it or not."

"I-I ...um, auauau-!"

"Psst~ don't listen to him, Hanyu," Antoine said coolly, after he had managed to pulled Erika off of Rika. "He just trying to scare ya by making it seem scarier then it really is. I sat through that whole thing without even jumping once."

"You know, that's funny, coming from the kid who was too scared to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night," Kim said laughing. "Haha~ I mean you waited all the way until the sun came up for days afterward!"

Me and Erika laughed as well when we got a good look at Ants' face, his expression had a look that was between anger and embarrassment. I remembered those day all too well.

"H-hey, that is not true, and you know it! I've never got that scared in my life!"

"Hehe~ can you say that in red text for me, Ant'? Or maybe the blue text would work better since humans can't use red!" I said loudly, pointing at him like Phoenix Wright.

Only to end up getting a 'wtf' look from everyone in the room.

Rrrright~ I'm the only one in the house who's seen and reads Umineko. That would explain all the stares.

"Um ...never mind, just forget it," I said sheepishly, scratching my cheek with my index finger, looking away.

"You are so weird, Kevin …," Kim said as she rolled her eyes at me, before turning back to Hanyu. "Anyway, as Kev~ was saying Hanyu, _Nightmare on elm street 3 _is a scary movie, all of the movies are. I mean, they don't scare me now that I've gotten older, but you've never seen a film like this before. Rather you want to watch it, or not? It's your choice."

Hanyu stood there looking at her feet for a moment, not saying a thing. Then she looked with a determined fire in her eyes as she said. "Auau~ I-I-I'll try and watch the movie, I not scared at all because I know it's f-fake so I'm okay with it! Auauau~!"

I'll admit that when she said that, I was impressed. Hanyu always seemed like she was easily frightened by things that were scary, and her shy disposition didn't help much either. But to her hear get up the courage to answer with such determination, surprised me.

And from what I could see, Rika was impressed as well.

"Mii~ good for you, Hanyu. You're finally facing your fears head on, I'm so proud of you! Pachi, pachi~!" Rika said cutely, clapping her hands.

Hanyu blushed slightly at the praise, stuttering a little. "T-thank you, Rika, t-that's nice of you to say."

"Well, she's only saying the truth, Hanyu," Ant' said twisting his finger in one of his dreadlocks, before a smirk made it's way onto his face. "Keep blushing like that and I just might make you my new pillow for now on, my cute little goddess~," He finished with a wink.

"M-me, c-cute …y-your new p-p-pillow ...b-but I ...auauau~!"

Yep, Ants' at it again. Purposely making Hanyu flustered with his smooth talking and player compliments, most which were true, but still, I swear he gets more and more like my father every year.

"Anyway, how about we get this movie started, guys?" Ant' turned away from the crimson faced girl, looking at me. "Don't just stand there, Kevin, put the movie on and cut off the lights already."

"Yeah, Kev~, we ain't got all day. Plus, I need to home and start my new master piece soon before it gets too late!" Erika said, in agreement.

I sighed. "Alright, alright, fine. Just give me a moment," I said.

I picked the others CD's up off the coffee table and put them back in their original places on the TV set, then I cut on the TV and put the movie in the DVD player and started the movie. I walked over to the corner of the room and cut off all the lights in the kitchen and in the living room, leaving the TV as the only thing giving off any light in the darkness.

After everyone was seated on the couch, I relaxed myself and grinned as I picked up the remote and pressed play when it got to the _Nightmare on elm street 3 _title screen. I really hope the girls will see just how awesome this movie is after it's over.

If it didn't scare them too bad that is.

**~ ~(Pt3)~ ~ **

We had been watching the movie for a while, right now it was on the part when Philip dies. In all truth I was sorta having second thoughts about putting on this movie. Everyone else were watching the movie just fine, Ant' was sitting there with a small grin on his face since another death scene was about to happen.

Erika was sitting on the floor, eating some of the popcorn that was being shared between us and Rika was watching with great interest. She jumped a few times, but other that, didn't really seem to be as scared as I had been when I first saw this movie years ago. And Kim and David, they were half paying attention to the movie and half talking to each other, I didn't know what David said. But he whispered something in Kim's ear, and she giggled at him afterward, playfully hitting him on his shoulder.

I part of me was curious as to what they were talking about ...but then I thought to myself. _Do I really want to know what they're saying to each other …?_

I then came to the conclusion that, no, I defiantly didn't want to know what they were saying.

Yep, everyone was fine.

Well ...everyone but a scared and slightly frightened looking, Hanyu.

"Hey, Kev~, are you sure about letting Hanyu watch something like this?" Antoine whispered as he nudged me in the side with his elbow. "I think this movie is freaking her out a little."

I looked back at the TV, and saw that it was on the part when Freddy started cutting Philip opened and strung him up like a puppet by his veins or whatever the hell was coming out of his body, then he started being lead down a the hallway sleep walking. I then turned to Hanyu and saw that Ant' was probably right, despite what Hanyu had said about not being scared and the movie being fake, she looked more scare then usual, terrified even.

The poor girl was shaking a little bit, and had her hands covering her eyes, though she would peak out in between them from time to time to see what was happening, while whimpering silently. "A-au ...auauauau~." At the same time.

Poor thing ...maybe I should cut the movie off ...but we're already like halfway though, almost. I can't take not finishing a whole movie after getting to a certain point.

I sighed, leaning over towards Hanyu as I whispered. "Hanyu ...are you alright, this isn't too scary for you is it?"

She jumped a little at the sudden sound of my voice, then she turn to me as she shook her head. "N-n-no, I'm fine, there's nothing wrong. I-I'm not scared at all."

"You sure, you're shaking a lot for someone who's not scared," I said softly, but in a teasing tone. "You wanna stop the movie?"

"Auau~ n-no, i-it's nothing, really, I'm fine, Kevin-San. L-let's just finish watching the movie."

"Are you sure, Hanyu?"

"Y-yes, e-entirely!" She whispered before turning back to the TV. She must have thought that I didn't notice it, but she slid a little closer to me while my attention was on the movie. Yep, she was scared, I could clearly feel her shaking now, not as much as she was before, but it was enough.

I honestly didn't mind her being so close to me. If it got her to calm down enough to finish the movie then it was okay by me. I'll have to pick a brighter and less frightening movie for her next time from now on.

At least, until she can handle scary movies like this.

**~ ~(Pt4)~ ~**

"Mii~ that was a very interesting movie, Kevin-San!" Rika said, once the film ended and the title screen came up again. "I'd like to watch the over ones sometime if that's okay?"

"Sure, I don't mind at all, just remind me so I don't forget."

"Okay!"

Erika got up from her spot on the floor and walking over to the corner, cutting back on all the lights in the living room, but keeping the ones in the kitchen off.

Ant' turned to Rika and smiled. "That's great, Rika! ...I knew you'd like it, so what was your favorite part?"

"My favorite part ...hmm," Rika cutely put her finger under her chin to think, then she smiled and answered, saying. "Mii~ my favorite part was when they finally beat Freddy at the end and showed that he didn't have any power over them~!"

"Oh, well my I like the part when Phillip died, the whole puppet on strings thing made my day. I can't believe actually forgot all about that part." Antoine said, then he turned to Hanyu, who was still sitting next to me, quietly. "So what was your favorite part, Hanyu?"

Hanyu looked slightly nervous, as she said. "Auau~ I-I don't really have a f-favorite part."

"Why ...you didn't like it," Ant' said in a curious.

"No! It's not that, it's just," she stopped talking for a moment before continuing. "Auau~ I-I've never liked watching people get hurt and killed and cut open, it's really cruel. The movie was okay though. I just rather watch something with a happy ending."

"What do you mean, they stopped the bad guy at the end."

"But, their friends died before they could stop him, that not a happy ending at all!"

_I see, so that's what's going on. _I could understand why Hanyu felt so strongly about this, it was because her and Rika had been trying to get a happy ending for so long so that not only would Rika survive, but everyone they cared about. And ...I was beginning to think that the movie had bung up somethings from Hanyu's past life, somethings that she'd rather forget. She went through hundreds of years being unseen, watching countless people get sacrificed in the Watanagashi ceremony in her name, Rika included. I should have thought about that a little more and considered her feelings.

Everyone in the room had went quiet after Hanyu's sudden outburst. Then a moment later, Rika sighed and broke the silence, but this time, rather then talking in her fake child's voice, she was talking in her real adult voice.

"Hanyu's right ...no matter what the struggle, even if you win against the enemy at some point. It doesn't matter if the ones you care for most are already dead. Even if one friend dies, there's no such thing as a 'happy ending' if everyone doesn't survive," she said with a calm seriousness in her voice, before she turned to me and continued. "...Isn't that right, Kevin-San?"

I gave a look of surprise at the sudden change in Rika's voice, in front of Kim, and Erika again no less. If they started asking questions, I don't think I'd be able to make up a good enough story. Nodding, I quickly said. "Yeah ...you're right, but, uh-."

"What the hell happened to Rika's voice?!" Erika asked, starring at the blue haired miko, who had a sudden mature look in her eyes. "It sounded like it when we went down town a few weeks ago, but I thought that was only when she was singing, not just normal talking."

"Yeah, I've never heard her voice sound like this before either." Kim added, starring at the girl as well.

"Um, well, ya see she ...uh, you see, Rika-," I rambled out.

_Shit! I have no idea what to say, damn it, think ...think!_

"She wants to become an Anime voice actor!" Came Ant' voice suddenly. I looked at him in surprise as he continued. "Rika's been practicing that voice since she was younger and she ...uh, finally made it good enough to sound like a grown woman's. It's something she wants to do when she gets older, she wants to voice actor."

"Really," Erika looked at Ant', then back at Rika, saying. "That's your voice acting voice, Rika?"

Rika's changed her voice back to that of a kid's as she answered happily. "Mii~ Yes it is, sir, I've been doing this voice for a long time so I could be a voice actor and voice lot of Anime characters!" She half lied, smiling.

"Wow~ that's sorta cool, I've never heard anyone use a voice like that before, at least not someone so young," the Hispanic girl said, smirking at Rika, while she patted her head. "You know a lot of company's like _Funimation _and even _Disney _might take you now if they knew how well you could switch between voices."

"Mii~ thank you, sir, that's kind of you to say," Rika said, before giving a wide smile. "Nipaa~!"

"Kyaa~ so cute! You are so cute, Rika~!"

Before Erika could run over and hug Rika to death, I stepped in between them and said. "Uh ...don't you have so new clothes or whatever to make before it gets too late, it already," I turned and looked at the clock on the wall. "eleven-forty-five."

"Oh gosh, you're right, I need to hurry up and get home." She said, coming out of her cute phase. "I guess I'll see you guys tomorrow then, and Hanyu, be ready, it'll only that me a few days to get the new outfit done, sweetie."

"O-okay," Hanyu said shyly. "Auau~ b-but what are you making for me to try out this time?"

"Oh, you'll see when the time comes, my little model," Erika said as she made her way to the front door, opening it she gave one last wave before leaving out. "See ya soon, and thanks for the movie, I had a blast!"

"Bye!" We all said aback.

Slam!

After Erika was gone, Ant' turned to David and Kim on the love seat. "So what about you David, don't you have to go home soon too?"

"Hehe~ nope, didn't Kim tell you guys already?"

I raised an eyebrow and said. "Tell us what, Dave?"

He smirked, before saying in a cool tone. "I'm, sorta, spending the night over your house tonight."

Wait a minute ...spending the night? But, there's no where to sleep in here, unless ...he's sleeping in Kim's room.

A big grin appeared on Ants' face, as he said teasingly. "Oh I see how it is, hehehe~ ...the adults want to play around a little after dark, I got cha."

Hanyu blushed at the inappropriate thoughts, and so did Kim. She blushed so much, it was easy to see against her brown skin. "I-it's n-nothing like that, Antoine!" Kim said.

"Sure, sure, whatever ya say, sis," Antoine said while yawning a little. He started making his way up the stairs and continued talking. "Anyway, I'm going to bed now. Just try not to make her scream too loud, David. I do like my sleep. Come on, Bern~!" He called out, and the purple colored cat hopped off her spot on the couch and followed after him.

"Shut the hell up, Ant'! I swear you make me want to! Grrrr~!" Kim shouted up the steps, clenching her fists.

I stood there, with my hand over my mouth, trying my best to hold in my laughs. Which I was failing at and Rika giggled quietly to herself. Kim turned to me and let out an annoyed breath.

"What are you laughing at!"

"Hahaha! S-sorry, it's just I've never seen you blush this much before!"

"Hmph~ whatever, just go to bed or something, me and David will lock up down here," she pouted in annoyance, crossing her hands over her chest.

I shrugged at her. "Alright, come on girls, we're going to bed. It's pretty late anyways."

Rika got out the last of her giggles, and then both the girls started up the stairs, with me following behind them. As I walked up the steps, I turned and looked down at Kim and David, before saying. "Goodnight, and you kids play nice. Don't do anything on the couch that I won't do, and if you do end up doing that, don't make a mess, alright!"

"Kevin! Go up stairs, now!"

Me and Rika laughed, while Hanyu just blushed slightly again, while giggled a little at the cracking sound in Kim's voice. Thing's really were fun now a days.

I just hope they stayed like this.

* * *

><p>Well, that's it for now, the next chapter will be out soon. Right now, though, I'm going to bed. Remember to review and give me ideas and suggestions if you have any. Peace~!<p> 


	10. Chapter 9: Fourth July, and Party Time

Hey, everyone, I know it's been a long while since I've updated this story, I just had to put it on hold for a bit to think of ideas and such. but, it's back, and this chapter proves it's not dead, I also be editing and checking through past chapters to fix mistakes and stuff while I continue bringing out chapters. Enjoy!

* * *

><p>Chapter 9: Fourth July, and Party Time<p>

The day started off like any other, I woke up at around nine or ten o'clock and started on breakfast. It was Wednesday, but it wasn't a normal Wednesday though; it was fourth of July, which meant celebrating with my neighbors and friends at this years block party that would last pretty much the whole day.

...This was probably the reason why Ant' was up with me this early in the morning.

"Man, today is gonna be so awesome!" Antoine said from the table behind me in excitement. "I mean, Rika and Hanyu have never been to a block party, I'm sure it'll be fun for them, don't you think, Kev'?"

I nodded. "Yeah, the closest thing they have to a block party in probably the festivals in Hinamizawa. But, I don't thing it's anything like what we do in the city, especially not in America." I turned my head, glancing at him over my shoulder as I continued fixing breakfast, today I was thinking of cooking something a little different today instead of what I usually made; besides Rika loves spicy food so she'll love a good ol' Jamaican breakfast just like my grandma on my dad's side used to make before she past. "Just be sure you don't do anything, alright."

"Awe~ come on, what am I going to do that I haven't done already?" Ant' asked, with one eyebrow raised.

I turned to face him, crossing my arms. "That's what you said last year, remember, and what happens later, ya nearly set the neighbor's yard on fire with the fireworks you shot off."

"Hey, that was an accident! Besides, I apologized to Mr. Mark about that!" Ant' said.

I shrugged. "Still doesn't change the fact that it happened, does it."

"Psst~ whatever," Ant' pouted.

I signed and turned back to the stove. "Anyway, just make sure nothing like that happens, okay. I doubt Mr. Mark will be as forgiving if you burn up his new rosebush."

"Yeah, yeah, I got it. Watch where I shoot my fireworks," Ant' said, before adding a moment later. "So, Kev~ ...when are we going to wake the girls, I mean it's almost eleven-fifteen, they might sleep the whole day away if we don't. I'll do it since your busy cooking."

"Nah, they'll be fine," I said, continuing to cook the food, "just let them sleep for a little while longer."

The reason why Hanyu and Rika were still asleep, even though they would've usually been up at this time normally, was quite simple really ...video games. They stayed up the most of the night playing _Left 4 Dead 2 _on two player story mode, Hanyu didn't really play zombie games at night with the lights off, she more so into games like _Animal Crossing _and_ Mario bros._, but Rika somehow talked her into it.

So, late night was filled with a lot of screaming and 'Auauau's~' ...I swear she's so cute, even when she's scared~.

"Okay, I guess I'd be tired too if I stay up till three in the morning playing video games," Antoine said with a smile, playing with his hair.

The kitchen got quiet, and the only thing that could be heard was the sound of a sizzling pan and Ant' drumming his fingers on the top of the table. The past few days have been fun, more so then last summer, though that was a blast as well. We were all happy, and I had the feeling this summer was only going to get better.

"Yo, Ant', why don't you set up the table," I said, glancing at him. "The foods gonna be done in a little bit."

He nodded. "Sure ...hey, I've got a great idea," Ant' said, smiling. "Since your making such a great breakfast, and it is the fourth, why don't we play a bit of music? We haven't used that old stereo in a while."

I thought on it. It was true, we haven't used the old stereo since ...forever, it made me wonder if we should listen to some of mom's old classic hip-hop CD's. I gave him a nod. "Sure, what did you have in mind?"

Ant' got up from his seat and walked into the living, a few moments later he came back with the big, black stereo and a CD case. He placing the stereo on the counter next to the refrigerator and plugged it up, the red dot on the side showing it still worked fine. "Hmm ...let's see," he started in thought, "we've got _Kid an' Play_, _The Jackson 5_, or we could listen to _Linkin Park_ or something, or we could listen to this." He finished, lifting up the CD in his hand.

"What is it?" I asked, in all truth I couldn't remember seeing a CD cover like that.

"Well~ you remember a year back when I brought that CD online?"

"Oh ...yeah, you mean the one you kept blasting all day until Kim yelled at you to turn it down?"

"Uh, yeah, that's the one," Ant' said. "I found it when I was looking through the old CD's, but we could listen to something else if ya want."

I shrugged at him. "Naw, that's fine ...wait, does that have the song on there that I said I liked? It was called, Cara-phia."

"You mean, _Caraphernelia_. Yeah, it's on there."

"Well, then what are you waiting for, put it on!" I said, grinning, pointing the spatula I was holding at ' had his own little groups he listened to, though he was more into rap then anything else, of course, unlike me he kept his bands to himself instead of telling others about them.

"Gotcha~!" He walked over to the stereo and put the CD in the player, closing it. He flipped through the red digital numbers until it got to track four, then he he the play button. The guitar solo started blasting through the speakers first, loud and smoothing, then Ant' started singing the lyrics.

_Sunshine, there ain't a thing that you can do that's gonna ruin my night.  
>(But, there's just something about)<br>This dizzy dreamer and her bleeding little blue boy.  
>Licking your fingers like you're done and,<br>You've decided there is so much more than me.  
><em>_And baby, honestly it's harder breathing next to you, I shake.  
>I brought a gun and as the preacher tried to stop me.<br>Hold my heart it's beating for you anyway._

Ant' didn't have the best voice in the world, but it wasn't exactly bad either. He walked over broom in the corner of the room and picked it up, moving his fingers across as if he was playing a guitar.

_What if I can't forget you?  
>I'll burn your name into my throat.<br>I'll be the fire that'll catch you.  
>What's so good about picking up the pieces?<br>None of the colors ever light up anymore in this hole._

As the lyrics stopped for a second, my little brother turned and pointed at me, smiling. "You're up, Kev~!"

I rolled my eyes at him, but started singing along nonetheless. Though, I had to wonder was turning the music up so loud really necessary.

_Nobody prays for the heartless.  
>Nobody gives another penny for the selfish.<br>You're learning how to taste what you kill now.  
>Don't mind me, I'm just reaching for your necklace.<br>Talking to my mom about this little girl from Texas._

_What if I can't forget you?_  
><em>I'll burn your name into my throat.<em>  
><em>I'll be the fire that'll catch you.<em>  
><em>What's so good about picking up the pieces?<em>  
><em>None of the colors ever light up anymore in this hole.<em>

I stopped singing when I heard two pairs of foot steps walking down the steps in the living room, Ant' put the broom up and turned down the volume a little, just as our resident blue haired miko and cute goddess walked into the kitchen. I chuckled, seeing that they were still somewhat tired, wearing their pajama clothes.

"Ah~ so you two are finally awake, morning, girls!" I said with a small wave.

"Good morning, Kevin-san, Antoine," Rika said in her mature voice as she yawned a bit, sitting down at the table.

"M-morning ...how long were we sleep for?" Hanyu asked, taking the seat next to her.

I smiled at her, cutting off the stove. "Oh, it's only two in the afternoon."

"T-two in the afternoon ...auauau~ we didn't mean to s-sleep in that long!" The horned goddess stuttered out.

I laughed. "Ah ha ha, just kidding, it's only close to twelve. You must still be tried if you forgot the microwave has a digital clock on it."

"Auau~ that's really mean, Kevin-san," Hanyu pouted, before yawning. "But …I am still a little tied."

Antoine chuckled. "Well, that's what happens when you play games all night, though I can't really talk. Me and Kev' did the same thing the first time we got _Halo 3_, stayed up the whole night, was damn near late for school too."

Rika shrugged tiredly. "So, what were you two listening to anyway, it didn't sound like anything you showed me," she asked.

"It's a song called _Caraphernelia_," I answered. "I don't know the name of the band so you'll have to ask Ant' about that."

"The band _Pierce The Veil _or _PTV_, they're pretty good, I haven't listened to them in a while though," Antoine said, before turning to me. "Anyway, what did you fix to eat, I'm starving and the smells not making it any better."

"Yes, what did you make this time, Kevin-san?" Rika asked.

"Oh, nothing much," I said. I fixed four plates of food and put each one on the table, then took the oven mitts off I pointed to each dish on the plate as I told the girls what it was. Each dish fairly easy to make and still just as good as any long cooked meal. "This is ackee and saltfish, I made it mild since I know Hanyu hates really hot food, this right here in the bowl is vegetable run-up," I then pointed to the golden brown fried dumplings. "And these are Johnnycakes made with sweet butter and honey, try it, they're good."

Hanyu was the first one to take up my offer, just like I thought she would. The girl had a major sweet tooth, she pick up one of the dumplings and took a small bite, it only took a moment before I got a reaction out of her. If this were in the anime universe, she'd probably have stars in her eyes right now.

"Wow~ these are really good, Kevin-san!" She exclaimed, taking a few more bites, bigger then the last, before handing one out to the blue haired miko. "Rika, here, you have to try it!"

Rika took it and bit into it, nodding in approval. "She's right, this is good. Crunchy on the out side, but soft inside, and just the right amount of sweetness."

"Aha ha~ Thanks guys, that's really nice of you to say," I said smiling as I ate my ackee and saltfish. "My grandma taught me how to make that when she visited us a few years back, so of course it good, grandma was one of the best cooks I know, funny too."

"Does she live in the city, too?" Hanyu asked, I felt really lucky I made a lot of Johnnycakes because she was really putting them away in that black hole she called her stomach. More so then the other dishes, I should have expected as much.

I shook my head at her question, but Ant' was the one that answered. "No, she pasted away last year. But, our other relatives live in Kingston, Jamaica. We visit when we can, and call and write our cousins every once in a while."

"I'm sorry to hear that ...so, she lived in the islands, I didn't know that," Rika said.

"Yeah, most of my dad's family live in the islands, there are a few up here, though. Like, our uncle lives in New York, and our second cousin lives near the art museum." Ant' explained, "but to be honest, our grandma was the best cook. I remember this one time when we went to visit her with my parents, we were sitting at the dinner table about to chow down," he then motioned his head towards me. "Kev' over here started eating before everyone else, so she got up and slapped him on the back of the head yelling," he then changed his voice into a Jamaican accent. "'Wat's wrong wit cha, boy! You think you can just eat in me 'ouse and not say grace!'"

I grinned at the memory as Rika and Hanyu giggled at me. "Yeah, that's funny now. I didn't think so at the time, though."

"Aha ha! He never did that again, that's for sure," Ant' laughed.

The rest of breakfast was spent sharing stories much like my brother had told. Rika even told me a little about some things that hadn't been seen in the _Higurashi_ anime or novel, like the time Satoko fell off her bike and hurt her knee, or the time Keiichi dressed in as a maid-cat girl costume when he lost in one of their club games. It was turning out to be a really great morning, but we weren't going to spend all day in the house.

"Oh yeah, Rika, Hanyu," I said suddenly. "I want you two to get dressed when were done eating, okay."

" ...Where are we going?" Rika asked.

"No where big, it's the fourth of July block party, so I wanted you two to come with me and Ant'," I answered. "There's gonna be dancing and food, games, a whole lot to do."

"Auau~ a party …? B-but, we aren't really from here," Hanyu said, shyly. "Are you sure that okay, Kevin-san?"

"Of course, it's fine," I said with a chuckled. "And, ya know, you and Rika don't have to keep calling me 'Kevin-san' we're all friends here, and you live with us ...just call me Kevin, hell, call me Kev', everyone else does!"

"S-sure, if you don't mind, then I'll call you Kevin," Hanyu said, giving a cute smile.

Rika smiled. "So, Kevin, is that the whole plan for today?"

I nodded, before getting from the table and stretching. "Yep, pretty much, I've got a surprise for you tonight, though. So be prepared!" The surprise was all of us going to the Penn's landing fireworks, I knew the girls would like it.

"Well, I'm gonna go feed Bern and get dressed," Ant' announced, getting up from the table and running upstairs.

I sighed, shaking my head, that boy would make any excuse to get out of helping clean the kitchen ...or anything for that matter. "I guess that leaves me with the cleaning."

"Auau~ I'll help you clean!" Hanyu said.

"Mii~ I'll help you, too, sir! No one should have to clean alone, we all ate after all!" Rika added, taking on her cute form with a big smile. "Niipa~!"

"Hehe ...thanks girls, you're a lifesaver," I thanked the two.

So with that we cleaned the whole kitchen from top to bottom, we did a way better job together then I would've done alone. Hanyu wiped down the table, Rika swept the floors, and I did the counter and the dishes. Before we knew it, we were finished and getting ready to start a fun day of partying.

**~ ~(Part 2)~ ~**

It was warm out, and the breeze blew lightly. It felt almost like spring rather then summer outside, the weather was always weird like that, it had a spring feel one moment, then it was incredibly hot the next. You couldn't ask for much better weather then this.

We all walked down the street, watching as everyone in the neighborhood played and had a good time. The really little kids were playing in sprinklers and kitty pools, those who were older rode bikes and played tag, and a few adults had their grills out. Today, I decided to wear a plain my black sandals, a white T-shirt and blue jean shorts. Ant' had on a tank-top, baggy pants and sneakers, and the girls both wore the sundresses that Erika had picked out during our shopping trip, Hanyu's was light blue and Rika had on a red one.

The entire street was blocked off for the day, and since my street only went one way, all someone did parked their van sideways up the street so no cars could come through. As we walked, a familiar elderly woman's voice called out to me and Ant' from my left.

"Ah~ Kevin, Antoine! It's nice to see you again!"

We both turned and saw that it was Mrs. Lee sitting on her porch in the shade, she was an old Chinese woman with long graying black hair and raven black eyes, she lived on the block even before we were born, and we hadn't seen her for the past few days because she had to go to the hospital for a hip injury. But, she seemed to be looking better then ever now.

"Mrs. Lee, hows your hip?" I asked, concerned, "are you sure you should be outside right now."

"Yeah, they said you had a really bad fall the other day," Ant' added.

She chuckled at us. "Oh, you don't have to worry about me, boys. I'll admit I'm not as young as I used to be, but it will take more then a hurt hip to keep this old woman down."

"Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yes, yes, I'm sure. The doctor said to rest and stay off my feet for a while, so sitting here watching the fun is no problem." Mrs. Lee said with, tilting her head a little to look behind me. "And, who might these young ladies be?"

I smiled, moving to the side to introduce them. "They're friends of ours, their staying with us for a while because of some ...uh, problems," I said. "Go on, guys, say hi."

"Mii~ it's a pleasure to me you, sir, my name's Furude Rika," Rika said cutely, giving a small bow.

"And, I'm Furude Hanyu ...her cousin," Hanyu greeted, bowing also. "Auau~ I'm sorry about your hip, I hope out get better soon."

Mrs. Lee smiled at the girls. "Awe, thank you, dear. You're both very nice, polite, young ladies, it's a nice change from the hoodlums I see from time to time running around the neighborhood causing trouble."

"You don't have to worry about them, Mrs. Lee," Ant' said, throwing his arms other Rika and Hanyu's shoulder. "These two wouldn't cause trouble for anyone at all, especially, Hanyu. She probably let a bee out the house rather then kill it," he faced to Hanyu, smirking. "Isn't that right, honey-bunch?"

Hanyu blushed, looking down at her feet. Most likely embarrassed about being called 'honey-bunch' in pubic. "Auauau ...I-I don't know, I c-could kill a bee ...if I wanted to."

"Hehe~ you're so innocent, Hanyu, such a merciful person, even to small insects. That's why your my number one girl ...no offense, Rika."

Rika giggled at her companion's flustered face. "Mii~ none taken, sir."

"Is everyone ready to party!" Yelled a voice that sounded like it was coming through loudspeakers, me and Ant' looked down the street and saw that the Dj stand was already setup, which meant that they were about to start the music. "I know you twelfth street kids know who to throw down, am I right!"

"Yeah!" A good amount of kids yelled.

"Then let's start this fiesta off with party anthem of all anthems," the Dj said into the mic. "...Party rock!" The second he said that the beginning of _LMFAO's Party rock Anthem _started blasting out the speakers.

_Party rock!  
>Yeah!<br>Whoa!  
>Let's go!<em>

_Party rock is in the house tonight_  
><em>Everybody just have a good time (yeah)!<em>

_And we gonna make you lose your mind (whoa)!  
>Everybody just have a good time (clap)!<em>

"Oh my god! I love this song!" Ant' exclaimed, before turning to the girls. "Do you guys wanna come dance with me?"

Rika shook her head. "I think I'll pass, thanks for asking though."

"Awe, man," he muttered, turning to Hanyu with a smile. "Hanyu, you have to come dance with me!"

"Auau~ I-I don't know."

"Come on, it'll be fun, trust me ...pretty please!"

"Mii~ you should go, Hanyu, it might be fun," Rika added in, smiling at her.

"But ...I-I can't dance like that," Hanyu said, glancing at some of the other kids.

"It doesn't matter if you can do the dance right or not, just have fun with it," I said, patting her head.

"O-okay, I guess I'll try."

"Yeah! lets get going. Don't worry, I'll teach you!" Antoine took the horned goddess by the hand and dragged her over to were a handful of kids were dancing in the street. I couldn't help but laugh at the look on her face as he dragged her along, even Rika giggled a bit.

"Anyway, Mrs. Lee, it was nice seeing you again," I said, smiling.

She nodded. "It was nice seeing you boys, too. And, make sure you keep your little brother out of trouble."

"I will."

The both of us crossed the street and sat down on one of the steps, sitting a little closer to were Hanyu and Ant' were. We were quiet for a while, just watching everyone do their own thing, usually during days like this I'd probably be grilling food too. But, not today, I just felt like relaxing for a while.

"Hey, Rika, can I ask you something," I asked suddenly.

The blue haired miko turned to me with a smile. "Of course, what is it?"

"You and Hanyu ...you guys are happy here, right?"

"Well, yes, why wouldn't we be," Rika answered. "I mine it's the first time we've ever survived until July, so yes, we are very happy, sir."

"I see ...so if I offered to let you guys stay here, permanently, would you? I mean, I know this is sorta sudden, but I just wanted to know ...that's all."

Rika's expression went from childish to serious pretty fast when I asked that, I could tell she was thinking about it. She just wasn't saying anything. "To tell the truth, I'd be tempted to stay," she answered after a moment. "But, as much as I want to, I can't. All of my friends, Satoko, everyone, they're all back in Hinamizawa, probably still suffering because of fate. I've thought about it for a while, maybe I'm just being selfish by staying here as long as I have, they're suffering while I sit around enjoying myself ...not fearing that death will come at every turn ...that my friends will turn and kill me like they have in countless worlds. I have to go back sometime, you know." She said, a saddened expression on her face. "I can't just sit here, knowing that they might be dying at this moment. Even if it means suffering for a hundred more years."

"I thought you'd say something like that," I sighed, sadly. "But, it can't be helped can it, I guess we'll have to find a way to send you back sooner and later."

"...Yeah," Rika agreed.

"Rika! Rika, look, I'm doing the dance!"

We both looked over and saw Hanyu dancing with Antoine and some of the other neighborhood kids. I couldn't help but smile at that, not in a million years would I have ever thought I'd see someone like her doing the _Party rock shuffle_, or at least the few moves of it she just learned from Ant', who was still helping her.

"Mii~ that's great! Keep it up!" Rika encouraged her. I leaned back on the steps, letting out a sigh as a light breeze blew against my face. Today was a good day.

That night, we all went on to go see the fireworks at Penn's landing, we even met up with Kim there since she was there on crowd control with a few other cops. I felt glad that the girls and Ant' had a good time, but I just couldn't get one thought out of my mind.

...Would things still be this great when the girls returned home, back to there own world.

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><p>Man, that was the most I've written in a good while. Remember to review and give suggestions, the next chapter will be out soon. So, until next time, peace~!<p> 


	11. Chapter 10: Beach Time pt 1

Hello there readers, welcome back, here's the next installment to the story. I know I haven't updated for a little while, but I have my reasons, I got a new game and I just couldn't put it down for the longest time, can you guess what it is? ...No, three word, Last Of Us! That game was so good, I beat it one time and I still started it over just to play it again! If you haven't gotten this game yet, I highly recommend it. anyway, um, enjoy!

* * *

><p>Chapter 10: Beach Time with Rika and Hanyu pt 1<p>

I've always liked long car rides, especially on nice days when there was a breeze blowing through the window on the freeway. Almost a week had past since the fourth of July ended, after the block party things went back to normal; we got a few hot days after that so no one went outside much because of the heat. But, today was a different day, I sat in the passenger seat of my sister's nineteen-ninty-three Toyota Previa, wearing a white T-shirt and dark blue swim trunks. I was dressed liked this for one reason only.

Our Atlantic city beach trip.

We went to the shore almost every summer, though we couldn't go last year because Kim was busy with work at the police station. But, luckily for us, she got some off time for this year; so after she told us, me, Antoine, and the girls packed up our clothes and some food and here we were, driving on the New Jersey freeway for some fun in the sun.

"Mii~ so what's it like at the beach?"

"What you've never been there …?" Ant' asked as he glanced up at her from his _Mario_ game on his Nintendo DS.

Rika shook her head. "Nope, the only places I've been to from swimming is the pool in Okinomiya and the creek near Hinamizawa. I've never been to a beach."

I couldn't help but look at her through the rear-view mirror, I was almost forgotten that Rika and Hanyu had never been outside of the Hinamizawa or Okinomiya area. It had never really come to mind that this was there first time doing something like going to the beach, I'd have to make sure this was a good first time for them.

"Wow, I didn't know that, I thought everyone went to the beach at least once in their lives by the time their your age," Kim said, keeping her eyes on the road. "But, hey, it's like I always say better to do it late then to do it never, right?"

"Kim ...you just made that up," I said.

She shrugged, leaning back slightly, keeping one hand on the steering wheel. "Whatever, Kev', I'm saying it now."

The loud sound effect of Mario dying came from the portable game in Ant' hands, he frowned and muttered, before holding it out the Hanyu, who was sitting to his right. The horned goddess happily took the game and started playing from where Antoine had left off. They had been doing this for a while, trying to see who could stay alive longer then the other, though Rika didn't join them, she just quietly starred out the window at the scenery of houses, trees and countless other cars that passed us by.

Not having much else to do, I decided that now would be a good time to start reading one of the voodoo books my grandma got me a few years back for a way to send the girls back to their world. I reached down into the blue duffel bag at my feet and pulled out a old, small book that's covered look to be made of leather or some other type of animal skin.

As I read the book, I came across quite a few things, but so far none of them had anything to do with spells to send the girls back home. There were instructions on how to do certain curses to give someone bad luck, some even mentioned something about human sacrifice, there was even one to turn someone into a zombie. Not the undead, walking dead type, but to actually control and brainwash someone into a mindless slave to do your bidding. It was some pretty hardcore stuff, nothing I'd ever use on a person.

That was when I remembered something, this book wasn't the only thing I took out of my closet.

"Hey, Kim," I said suddenly, looking up from my book at her. "Are you going to the casinos tonight?"

"Um ...I don't know, probably not," she answered, not taking her eyes off the road.

I gave her 'are you sure?' look and said. "Kim …?"

"Okay, yeah. I'm going," Kim admitted with a sigh. "Why did you want to know?"

"Oh, I just got you a little something to help with your luck," I said, grinning. "And you know you need all the luck you can get."

She frowned, glancing over at me out the side of her eye. "I'm not that bad ...am I?"

"Kim ...I'll put it lightly, you're not very good when it comes to casinos."

"Translation, you suck, Kim!" Ant' added smugly from the backseat.

"Shut up, Brat! Nobody was asking you!" She spat, glaring at him through the rear-view mirror.

He pouted, before turning back to watch Hanyu play the DS. "Okay, I was just kidding, damn. Some people can't take a joke."

"Uh, anyway, as I was saying," I continued. I bended the corner of the page I was on and closed the book, putting it back in the duffel bag. I dug inside it, feeling around for the other object I'd gotten. "I got you something to help, let's see, where is it. ...Ah~ here it is!" I felt a small bit of fur brush against my palm, before I pulled it out by the small chain, holding it up for Kim to see.

"What the hell is that?" She asked, quickly glancing at it, before turning back to the freeway.

I smiled. "What does it look like, it's a rabbit's foot."

"Mii~ does it do the same thing as the monkey's paw?" Rika asked as her, Ant' and Hanyu leaned forward to look at it. I shook my head.

"Nope, thing does something totally different," I explained to them. "Unlike the monkey's paw, which only grants wishes, a rabbit's foot brings the holder good luck ...an extremely unnatural amount of luck, actually."

Ant' frowned. "Wait, so you've had a rabbit's foot this whole time. Did you even ever use it before?"

I nodded. "Yeah, quite a few times."

"Like when …?" Kim asked, curiously.

I tossed up and caught the white fur covered foot in my hand. "Well, there was the one time last year, remember when I failed my math exam in the winter, right before break?"

"Yeah," she said, before the realization hit her. "...Wait, you didn't use that thing, did you."

"Um, I kinda did," I said, nervously. She glared over at me and I quickly continued. "But, I didn't know it would really work at the time, I always kept it in the box grandma gave me! So, just this one time I thought 'what the hell' so I took it to school and answered the questions on the retest as best as I could ...and I got a hundred."

"So you cheated, huh."

"Awe, come on, Kim. Besides, that was only a one time thing, I didn't know it was gonna work, honest," I reasoned with her.

She glanced over at me with a look of disapproval. "Sure, but you were hoping it would. That's why you took it to school, am I right." Kim said, frowning.

I sigh. "Uh ...y-yeah, that's true," I admitted.

"Mii~ for shame, you shouldn't cheat, sir, that's not fair to everyone else," Rika scolded, wagging her finger at me.

"Auau~ you could have just studied, Kevin, hard work always pays off in the end," Hanyu said.

"She's right, Kev', for shame," Antoine added smugly. "It really makes me wonder what else you used the rabbit's foot to cheat at."

"Hey, come guys, cut me some slack," I muttered. Great, now they were making me feel guilty for something I did almost two years ago. "I was fourteen, and under pressure. Have you ever even seen what geometry looks like, Ant'? Trust me, you'll be begging for this foot when you have to do it."

"Whatever you say, bro. I'm smart enough to do something like geometry, as long as I have the textbook I'm fine."

"You say that now, but you won't be saying that then," I said, before turning back to Kim. "But, this isn't about me ...or what I did with it, I was actually thinking you could use it for the slot machines or whatever you play when your at the casinos. I mean, gambling is rigged anyway, right. So you need all the luck you can get."

"I don't know, I'd rather try it myself," Kim said, unsure of if she should use it or not. "But, I'll think about it."

"Okay, then," I said, as I tossed the foot back in the duffel bag. "If you change your mind, just ask."

She nodded, "I'll remember that."

The car went silent a few minutes later, the only sound that could be heard was the sound effects from the DS and the engine of the car. I breathed out a huff of air upwards, and continued looking out the window, I could smell the faint scent of seawater in the air as the wind blew on my face. We were almost there, probably another half hour or so.

I heard Ant' let out a groan, before he leaned forward between the diver and passenger seats. "Hey, why don't you play the radio or something, Kim? Just sitting here's boring," he said.

"Fine, Kevin, look in the glove-compartment. There should be some CDs in there."

I did as she said and reached forward, opening the glove-compartment, there were about five or six CDs in it, three that didn't even have a cover or title. I noticed that two of them were from my mom and dad's song collection, I had no idea that Kim had those in here to listen to.

"Okay, so we've got a few choices," I said as I looked through the CDs. "We have _The Jackson five_, one of my mom's old favorites, _Bob Marley_, my dad's favorite artist and a few blank one that I have no idea what's on it." I leaned back and looked at the three of them, holding the disks in one hand. "Well, take your pick, which one?"

"Mii~ I think we should try the blank disk," Rika said.

"I think we should too," Hanyu agreed, not looking up from the hand held game. She frowned starring at the screen, her expression highly concentrated on whatever level she was on in the game. "...Auauau~ Why are the ice levels so hard! Mario keeps slipping over the edge every time I jump over the gaps."

"Don't worry, Hanyu, I sucked at the ice levels at first too," Ant' told her, before he added. "Oh yeah, and I third that on the CD, you know I like surprises."

I shrugged. "Alright then, mystery disk it is then." I picked a random disk out of the three blank CDs and put the rest in the space between me and Kim, I took the disk out of the case and slid it into the car's CD player. A moment later, lite up, green, digital words came up on the small rectangular screen that said track one on it; the first song wasn't something I was expecting.

_How do I say goodbye to what we had?  
>The good times that made us laugh<br>Outweigh the bad._

_I thought we'd get to see forever_  
><em>But forever's gone away<em>  
><em>It's so hard to say goodbye to yesterday.<em>

A sudden coldness ran over my chest, like someone poured ice water on my heart. I bit my lip and tightened my hands into fists, it just had to be this song …the same song they played at mom and dad's funeral.

I looked over and saw that Kim's expression changed too, her reaction was close to mine, and Ant' just got really quiet. A memory of that day came crawling into mind. Seeing my parents for the last time at the viewing, Ant' crying out for the both of them, my big sister was trying to stay strong for the both of us, and our other family members saying goodbye to them.

I didn't want to remember that day, I didn't want to remember any of it. I cried and grieved, probably more then anyone had, I'd let go.

So why the hell did I still feel like this?

_I don't know where this road  
>Is going to lead.<br>All I know is where we've been  
>And what we've been through.<em>

My eyes started to water, but I quickly rubbed them with both hands.

Kim must have seen my distress because she reached over and changed to track. "W-why don't we change this song," she muttered sadly. The next song was a much happier one, but that didn't change my mood much.

"Thanks ...I hate that song."

"Mii~ are you alright, Kevin?" Rika asked with concern, leaning between the two seats.

"Y-yeah, I'm fine."

"Auau~ are you sure, you look sorta upset," Hanyu glanced over at Ant', then back at me. "Is there something wrong with the song that was just playing. Because it was nice, I-I like it."

"It's not the song itself, Hanyu," Antoine answered, frowning. "There just aren't a lot of good memories that go with it, Kev' doesn't really hate the song, it's just hard to listen to ...that's all."

"I-I see," Hanyu stuttered out.

Damn it, my bad mood was rubbing off on everyone. I really didn't want to be the reason why everyone wasn't enjoying themselves. I'd have to change that, maybe some singing would lighten that mood, even if it was just a little bit.

"Hey, why don't we have a sing along with the next track, we need to do something to pass the time, right?" I said, trying my best to sound like my usual cheerful self. They agreed, and I pressed the skip button to track four, the song that came on was one that I hadn't heard in a long while, an old rock classic.

There was a short guitar solo, then the lyrics started. I was the first one to start singing.

_I never meant to be so bad to you  
>One thing I said that I would never do.<br>_

_One look from you and I would fall from grace  
>And that would wipe this smile right from my face.<em>

_Do you remember when we used to dance  
>And incidence arose from circumstance<br>One thing lead to another we were young  
>And we would scream together songs unsung. <em>

Once it got to the chorus, Ant' and Kim joined in with me, both of them smiling as the three of us sang together. The music blasting loudly out the van window.

_It was the heat of the moment  
>Telling me what your heart meant<br>Heat of the moment shone in your eyes._

"Mii~ what's this song called?" Rika asked, we stopped singing as she continued. "I think I heard it before."

"That's because you probably did," I said to her, bobbing my head to the song. "It's by a British band from the eighties called _Asia_, Kim plays it from time to time, she gets her taste in music from my mom after all. She loved this song." As the van drove down the freeway, I turned my head and saw the first signs that we were almost to Atlantic city. I pointed towards the tall hotel and casino buildings. "And that's where we're headed over there."

"Make sure you've got your things ready, we'll be there in a few minutes," Kim said, before silently adding. "Maybe I should have brought a radio or something."

I couldn't help but agree with her, a radio might have been a good idea. But, it was too late now, we'd just have to have fun without it.

**~ ~(Part2)~ ~**

The clear blue ocean waves slowly climbed up the edge of the beach, the wet sand black and cool as the waves receded into the huge body of the Atlantic. I let out a heavy breath as me and Ant' carried on of big cooler filled with food and drinks from the car to our sitting spot on the beach. The sand that wasn't touched by the water was hot from being baked by the consistent sunlight, I really regretted forgetting to bring my flip-flops out for that reason, but I had on my sneakers so I was fine for the moment.

"God, I can't believe Kim is making us carry this heavy-ass cooler," Ant' grunted, shifting the cooler's weight a bit to get more comfortable. "She could have help us at least, she's strong enough."

"Yeah, but she had to take Hanyu and Rika so they could go change into their swimsuits," I said, shrugging my shoulder a bit to keep my duffel bag from sliding off. We walked a bit farther past a lot of people and an blonde woman wearing shades who was laying down in a bikini, most likely trying to get a tan from the looks of things, and dropped the ice filled cooler in the sand next to our spot, it was easy to tell it was our spot because of the blue flower designed beach towel and the huge red umbrella that was placed over it to block the sun.

After the cooler and everything was setup, I dropped my bag and took off my shirt, then kicked off my shoes and socks. I glanced over and saw Ant' do the same, he had one a pair of black and red swim trunks and tied his dreadlocks together with a rubber band.

A few minutes past and the girls still hadn't come back from the changing rooms yet, Antoine was about to go running into the water by himself, when he turned around and saw Kim walking over to us with Rika and Hanyu following behind her. She had on a black two piece bathing suit on with a towel wrapped around her waist.

Rika had on a hot pink two piece with two side strings tied on the bottom half and the top was tied around the back of her neck, as for Hanyu, she was on a light purple one-piece that looked sorta like a mix between a swimsuit and a ballerina tutu.

"Sorry we took so long, boys," Kim said as she walked past us and plopped down on the towel in the shade. "There was a line for the changing room, didn't expect to be standing there for that long."

"Mii~ we didn't make you wait too long, did we?" Rika asked, smiling cutely.

I shook my head. "Nope, not at all."

"Oh, that's good," Rika stood there for a moment, then asked. "So, how do we look, sir?"

"You look very cute, Rika," I put my hand hip, smiling. "You do to, Hanyu. I'm sure Ant' would agree with me, right, bro?" I said, nudging Ant' with my elbow, he'd been starring at her for a while now, I don't even think he blinked either.

He broke out of his stupor, and nodded. "Uh-huh ...you look awesome, Hanyu, you're bathing suit really brings out your eyes."

"Auau~ th-thank you, Antoine, that r-really nice of you to say," Hanyu stuttered out, blushing slightly from the compliment.

I clapped my hands together loudly, catching everyone's attention. "Alright, so now that we're all here, why don't we all hit the water. We might even play a game afterwords."

"Yeah, beach time, whoo~!" Ant' exclaimed, pumping his fist in the air, running towards the water, the girls ran after him and I just chuckled as I walked. Same old Ant', somethings never change. When we got in the water we played for a while splashing the cold water at each other, we even played Marco Polo for a little bit, then we had a race on the wet sand to see who would win running from one side line drawn in the sand to the other.

After that, me and Ant' wrestled in the water for a minute while the girls sat back and watched cheering us both on, I almost got the upper hand, that was until Ant' did some type of Judo move on me. Now, I easily weighted more then him, but he did some movement with his body to use that against me, and the next thing I knew I got a killer pain in my brain or whatever it was called from too much water going up my nose, along with a mouth full of saltwater ...not cool.

I sat up instantly and coughed, holding my head. "Oh God ...that's gross, I hate sea water!"

"Mii~ why did you decide to come to the beach then, sir?"

"No, Rika, you misunderstand," I stood up, trying to spit out the taste of ocean. "I love the beach, it's one of my favorite places. I just can't stand the taste of the water," I said. That was when I remembered I had to catch up on a lot of voodoo research and my books only covered so much, but you have to start somewhere, right? "Anyway, I'm gonna go take a break for a little while, are you three okay here by yourselves?"

"Kev', come on, look who your asking," Antoine said, smugly. "I'm almost thirteen, I can watch out for the three of us just fine, ya know."

I starred at him with a blank expression. "Um ...I see who I'm talking to, that's why I had to ask. Trouble seems to follow you like a stalker when I'm not around you in public."

"Aw, come on, that's not true," Ant' argued.

I sighed, and started counting all the things that happened to him in the past on my fingers. "Okay ...then, what about the skate park incident, or the fight you had with that one kid for God knows what reason or the time you scratched that car with your bike, or when-."

"Alright, I get it, damn, your making it like I cursed or something!" He said, running his hands over his dreadlocks. "Shit happens when I'm alone, I get that, but Rika and Hanyu are here, I'll be fine, bro!"

"Mii~ we'll watch out for him and keep him out of trouble, sir," Rika said, giving me a small push at my side. "So you have nothing to worry about, just relax and worry about yourself."

I sighed, before nodding. "Okay, but if something happens, come get me," I said before I turned and started back towards our spot on the beach.

Rika smiled, waving at me. "Sure thing, sir! Don't worry about us!" Then she and the other two ran off to play farther down the beach where there were tons of other people.

I plopped down on the beach towel under the umbrella with a huff, turning to my left, I opened up the cooler next to me and pulled a grape soda out of the ice before closing it. I drank down about half the can to get the salty taste out my mouth.

"I saw that, you know," Kim said from beside me, she was lying on her back, legs crossed with her head turned my way.

I simply shrugged, "I have no idea what you're talking about."

She gave a small smirk. "Oh, yes you do, the brat put you on your ass, I watched the whole thing. Some other people even laughed at you."

"You're kidding, right," I asked, feeling the chill of embarrassment climb up my spine.

Kim giggled softly at my facial expression. "Nope, I'm dead up, it had quite a few people laughing their ass off at that." She said, still smirking, "...come on, Kev', don't give me that look. You have to admit, the kid's gotten better with his shoulder throw. I mean, considering how heavy you are compared to him, I'm impressed. But, his nick name is Ant, you know they can left up ten times there own body weight."

I gave a nod, pouted. "Yeah, that's true."

After a few minutes of talking to sis, asking her about how things were going with David and work, among other stuff. I decided to start reading and pulled the voodoo book out of my duffel bag and began reading it from the page I left off, there still wasn't anything on how to reverse a wish or spell, but there were a lot of interesting things in it. Though the thing that caught my eye was how to make a voodoo doll, I mean those things were pretty dangerous, one piece of hair or a drop of blood, even having a full name and face, you could literally hex someone with some serious bad luck.

And don't even get me started on the hex bags, that was some really dark stuff. How people could actually practice this stuff on others was beyond me.

I was about at the end of the passage, when I heard a loud voice calling out to me from afar.

"Kevin! Kevin!"

I looked up from my book and saw that it was Hanyu, her purple hair flying behind her as she quickly ran towards me. I saved my page and put the book down besides me, "Hanyu, what's wrong?" I asked as she stopped in front of me.

Hanyu was hunched over, trying to catch her breathe as she answered. "Kevin …Antoine's in trouble."

"What ...why," I said with an eyebrow raised. "What did he do, tell me what happened?"

"Auau~ we were playing in the water, and a few minutes after you left this boy came up and tried to talk to me ...asking if I wanted to hang out with him and his friends ...auauau, I didn't know refusing would cause all this trouble!"

"Whoa, calm down, Hanyu," Kim said, sitting up in her spot. "Just slow down ...breathe, okay."

"Okay," Hanyu seemed to calm down a little, then she continued, saying. "...So, I-I told him that I was fine because I was playing with Rika and Antoine, but he kept asking me. Rika got annoyed and told him to leave me alone, then he started saying some really mean things to her! I really did try ...I told him not about talk to her like that. But, then he started calling me ugly names and ...auauau, he said my horns made me look weird and that I should take them off, and his friends started calling me 'Ramyu'."

Hanyu looked like she was about to cry at this point. I frowned and stood up on one knee, we came here to have fun, but kids are cruel, maybe even more so then in Anime, I know that for a fact.

"Hanyu, listen to me, okay," I said. I took one hand and patted her on the head, looking her in the eyes. "You're not weird, sometimes people just try to be mean and hurt your feelings, but what they say aren't true. You're a cute girl, sure you might be a little shy, but your not weird at all ...just different."

"S-so you don't think that my h-horns are weird, that I'm weird …?" Hanyu asked, nervously, touching the black curved outgrowths.

I shook my head, laughing. "Hanyu, how long have you been staying with us? Trust me, if you were weird, I'd have told you by now," I answered, truthfully. "There's nothing wrong with you, so don't let anyone tell you anything different, understand?"

"A-alright," Hanyu nodded, smiling a little. "Thank you, Kevin."

"No need to thank me. Now, stay here with Kim, I'll go straighten this whole thing out."

She nodded and went to sit under the umbrella next to Kim, who put a comforting arm around her shoulder. I turned and started walking the way Hanyu had come from, a frown slowly forming on my face, only a dick would make a person like Hanyu cry, and what really agitated me the most was that they even talked about Rika too.

As I made my way down the beach, I noticed a small crowd had started to form up ahead. I hurried along, hoping that things hadn't escalated too much, I pushed my way through the small crowd of beach goers and saw Antoine arguing with a taller blonde boy that was probably a year or so older then him, and two other boys were behind the other kid. Rika stood off to the side, the look of announce clear on her face. Walking towards them, I finally got to hear what they were yelling about.

"-Look, I don't give a fuck, ass-hat, you can't talk to Rika like that," Ant' spat. Now, my little brother had a harsh mouth, and he never held back when it came to arguing with people outside of his friends and family. "Keep it up and yo bitch-ass ain't gonna like what I do!"

"Really, and what are you gonna do, huh, midget?" The boy taunted him.

"Oh, wow, a short joke, I've never heard that before," Ant' said sarcastically. "Guess what, though, this _midget _can knock your teeth down your fuckin' throat!"

"Try me, then," the blonde kid said, bending over to Ant's level. "Or are you just gonna be a pussy and run off like that horned-weirdo did."

"You know what, fuck you!"

The second Antoine cocked his hand back to throw a punch, that was when I decided to step in. I heard all that I needed to hear to know where this was going. "Antoine, stop!" I said as I marched over to them, he looked over at me in surprise and dropped his fist.

"Kevin ...it's about fuckin' time."

"Don't curse at me, Ant'," I scolded him with a glare. "Now, what the hells going on here?"

Ant' frowned, then pointed at the blonde kid next to him. "This dick-head was trying to make a move on Hanyu, and you and I both know that she'd never go off with just anyone, especially this dick. She turned him down, and like an ass he kept pestering her, so Rika got involved and he started talking about her out of no where calling her a short, flat chest with mommy issues," he explained.

I could see now why Rika looked so upset, she loved her mother a lot, even though she could never save her from dying, that and her _underdevelopment_ at her age was a very sensitive subject for her, and it didn't help that Hanyu was slightly more developed then she was, not to mention some other girls around her age on my block could easily pass for fourteen.

"Alright, so Hanyu turned him down," I then turned to the blonde kid and glared at him, he may have been taller then Ant', but he wasn't taller then me. "Why didn't you just leave her alone then, huh, then we wouldn't have this problem."

"Because, she was hot, I was trying to reel her in," he said in a cocky tone. "But, hey, it's not my fault she can't see a real man when she sees one."

"A 'real man', huh," Rika made a face, speaking in her adult tone, her annoyance clearly heard. "Your a child, a boy, a 'real man' doesn't talk about a girl once she turns them do. He accepts it and moves on, that's a real man," she said, before smirking. "In the words of Antoine, you're just a dick, and if you ever expect to even talk to a girl, that might be something you want to change."

"Yeah, Rika's right, you are a dick," Ant' agreed.

The blonde kid glared at the two, then just at Antoine. "You sure know how to talk shit, but your mom wasn't saying that when she got this dick last night."

That was the last strew, I was about to say something, but Ant' beat me to it. He acted, a rage filled expression on his face as he march up to the boy, and out of no where, he pulled his fist back and socked him right across the jaw boxing style. Next thing I knew, the boy fell sideways, face first into the sand, and the crowd was speechless ...it was an instant K.O.

"What's up now, huh, you got knock the fuck out, bitch!" Ant' yelled before he kicked the downed boy in his side for good measure. "Fuck you mean, dick-head!"

I could tell he wasn't about to stop with that, so I hurried and tried to pull him away, but he fought in my grip, hard. "Ant' stop, calm down!"

"No, you heard what he said about mom, that fuckin' ass-wipe!"

"Look, I know how you feel, but he's down," I argued with him, holding him by his arms. "Let it go ...let's just get out of here, okay, Hanyu and Kim are waiting for us."

He stopped fighting me, but he still had a frown on his face. "...Fine," once I let him go, Ant' turned towards the other two boys, who were helping there friend up, and said. "Tell your home-boy when he wakes up that if he _ever_ comes to Philly, if I see him or any of y'all in my hood, I gonna smack the shit out you."

They didn't reply and just went back to helping there friend, the crowd had cleared out and I took Rika and Antoine by the hand and pulled them along as we made our way back to out spot on the beach. The entire walk was silent, and Rika still seemed sorta mad about what happened, she had calmed down a bit, though. Ant' was the real problem here.

"I can't believe that asshole said that stuff about mom, and what kind of person says things like that to a girl like Hanyu?" he muttered.

"A dick, pretty much," I said, not really answering the question. "You see what I mean now, right?"

"See what?"

"Bro ...I told you, you're a trouble magnet," I sighed.

"So, what, your blaming me for this," Ant' asked, frowned.

"No, I'm not blaming you, okay," I answered. "It just seems that whenever your alone and no ones around, something bad gos down."

Ant' gave a thoughtful expression, and sighed. "I guess your right, but it's not always my fault, ya know."

"Yeah, yeah, sure."

"I'm serious!" Ant pouted, before turning to our blue haired miko. " …Are you alright, Rika, they said some pretty nasty things about you."

Rika sighed, then touched her chest with her hand. "Am I really that flat like a boy ...I thought I'd at least grown a bit since I got to this world, why can't I have breasts like Mion?"

"Well, for one, your too small," I humored her. "And two, you're still growing, everyone develops at their own pace, besides there's nothing wrong with being flat-chested, your still cute, and you have a nice personality. A big chest ain't everything."

"Yeah ...well, I'm still a little jealous of Hanyu," she muttered, before she turned to me and added. "Don't tell her I said that, though."

I chuckled, and made a zipping motion over my lips. "My lips are sealed, Rika. Besides, I'm sure that one day you'll find someone who likes you for you, and not your cup size, like my mom said once to Kim, you've got to use what you have to your advantaged."

"Use what I have to my advantage, huh," Rika said in thought.

Once we got back to out spot, everything had calmed down. Antoine had hurt his fist a bit from punching that boy in the face, so Kim had to wrap his hand up using the first-aid kit from the van. We took some time to eat lunch, afterward we made sand castles and forts. Soon though, the sun came close to setting, coloring the sky in a nice orange glow. We packed up and left the beach, heading to our hotel where we would be staying for the night to change and get dressed for this evening.

Tonight was gonna be a long night, and not in a bad way either ...hopefully.

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><p>And that's it, until next time, remember to review and give suggestions, the next chapter will be out sooner then you know a plus this last episode of Attack on Titan was truly awesome!<p>

Peace~!


	12. Chapter 11: Beach Time pt 2

Yo, what's up everyone, I know it's been a few days, a week actually, and school's started up again. So, uh, yeah, back to school. Anyway, to you all from me, Enjoy~!

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><p>Chapter 11: Beach Time with Rika and Hanyu pt 2<p>

We all walked along the boardwalk as I observed the large crowd of people around us. It was about seven o'clock or so right now, and the boardwalk was packed, there were little kids playing, adults drinking at the local bars, everyone was just having a good time, and there were even a few police around to make sure everything stayed calm.

Kim had broken away from us a half-hour ago to head over the the casinos, she didn't ask for the rabbit's foot like I thought she would, but I told her if she wanted she could go back to the hotel and get it out of my bag.

After we walked down the boardwalk for a little bit, I thought now would be a good time to get something to eat before we started having fun for the rest of the night.

"So, how about we get something to eat, I'm feeling a little hungry," I said, suddenly.

Hanyu's stomach growled, and she blushed slightly. "Auau~ n-now that you've said something, I-I am feeling a little hungry."

"Well, there's a pizza place over there," Ant' said, pointing across the boardwalk from where we were. "I don't know about you guys, but I'm in the mood for some Italian food."

"Okay, what about you two," I asked, turning to the girls. "Do you want pizza or something else?"

"Mii~ I don't mind having pizza, sir," Rika said.

I nodded. "What about you, Hanyu?"

"If e-everyone else is getting pizza, I guess I'll have some too," she said, shyly.

I clapped my hands together, as a smile formed on my face. "Pizza it is, then. Alright, Let's go everyone," and with that we all walked into the pizza restaurant, with a big light up sign on the front that read 'Italy's Finest'. I couldn't really remember if we had ever eaten pizza here before, maybe me and Ant' did in the past, because there was something about this place that seemed really familiar.

The place was pretty big, and smelled of freshly made pizza and garlic, among other things. It was half full of people, who seemed to be enjoying themselves and having a good time chatting away as they ate. After a moment of standing near the front, I decided that it would be best to sit at one of the booths at the end of the long aisle since it had a decent view of the ocean. We walked over and took a seat in the black, leather covered booth meant to hold four people. I picked up the menu and read some of the dishes, I saw that it wasn't just pizza that they served here.

"Would you look at that," I said as I flipped through the menu. "Looks like there's way more then just pizza to eat here, I guess you guys can choose what you want then."

"Oh, really …?" Ant' said, surprised, picking up the brownish menu in front of him. "Cool ...hey, they have pasta here! Then, again, this place is called 'Italy's Finest'," he turned to the girls and grinned. "What about you two, anything catch your eye?"

Hanyu nodded, as she looked through her own menu. "I think I'll try the cheese pasta surprise, it looks good. But, then there's the chicken Alfredo ...auau, I can't decide on what to get."

"Mii~ I'm getting the shrimp and noodle special, sir," Rika said, cutely.

"Okay, then," I started, leaning back into the black cushions of the booth. "Since we've all decided, now we just have to wait for a someone to come take our orders."

About five minutes past, then a tan skinned waitress in skinny jeans and a dark red shirt with an apron over it came over to take our orders. The three of us told her what we wanted, Hanyu took a few moments to decide, before choosing to try the chicken Alfredo. The waitress wrote it down in the notepad she was holding, then poured us all a glass of ice water, and I thanked her politely before she smiled, walking off to the serving counter.

As we waited for our food, we made small talk, then started on where we should go once we were done here. It was the boardwalk, there wasn't really any bad places to go, since everything on the beach was pretty exciting, even after sunset.

"You know what, I think we should head to the arcade after this," Ant' suggested, taking a sip of his water.

"How come …?" I asked, there wasn't really anything special about the arcade. So, it made me wonder why he'd choose that place of all places to go.

"Well ...I don't really have a reason," Ant' answered, shrugging. "I just felt like playing some arcade game, winning tickets, maybe getting a few prizes, that sort of thing."

I drank my glass of water and thought about it for a moment, then sighed. "I guess we could stop at the arcade. Now, that you mention it, I do feel like playing some _House Of The Dead_, I can't remember how long it's been since I last played that," I replied, before adding with a smile. "Hey, do you remember that time we played a few years back at that one arcade by the gallery. We got that really high score with, like, no deaths."

"Oh, yeah, I totally remember that," Ant' said with a nod. "That was also the day I kicked your sorry ass in _Street Fighter 3_, and with Dan of all fighters."

"That was just one time. Besides, I was going easy on you!"

"Sure you were, bro. Sure you were."

"Mii~ so we're going to the arcade, then?" Rika asked after me and Ant' finished talking.

I gave a nod. "Yep, we can go somewhere else afterward if it's not too late. Maybe, the amusement park or something. Who knows."

Almost fifteen minutes later, the waitress came back with our food, taking the plates off the tray she was holding. She put each plate in front of us, I got my ground beef pizza, and the other three got what they ordered. She quickly turned and left again, only to come back a few moments later with four glass cups and a pitcher of iced tea.

We all thanked her as she left to wait another table and dug into our meals, talking about different stuff while we ate. I told them about my favorite TV shows and Animes, along with the latest information on some video game titles that I knew were coming out during the summer and next school year.

After we were done eating, I stood up and put a five dollar tip under the salt shaker, "you guys ready to head out?" I asked.

Antoine nodded, gulping down his last bit of iced tea. Rika and Hanyu stood up and pushed their plates into the center of the table with the others. I checked to make sure that I had everything important, my cellphone and money. Then, we walked and left out the front door, the bells ringing as the door closed behind us.

"Well, lets get this show on the road," Ant' said excitedly, half skipping and half dancing down the wooden walkway like he was on _The Wiz _humming _Ease On Down The Road_. I snickered, and we started walking after him ourselves.

**~ ~(Part2)~ ~**

The double doors behind us closed as we stepped into the arcade called 'Atomic Games'. The place was loud, sound effects from the games and music blasted all over the large two story building, there were flashing lights from the gaming console screens and a large flat screen TV over by the bar, that was strictly for adults only, if the sign was anything to go by.

"Wow~ this place is so big," Hanyu said in awe, looking around. That was until something at the far side of the entertainment area caught her attention. "Oh, look, they have _Sonic The Hedgehog_!" She was about to run over there in her excitement, until I stopped her by grabbing her shoulder.

"Whoa! Stop right there, Hanyu," I said, chuckling. "As excited as you are, we need to get tokens first before we do anything."

"Auau~ how come," She asked in honest curiosity.

I let go of her shoulder and smiled. "Because, tokens are how you play the games, without them, you'll just be standing around watching other people play. That, or just getting in the way," I answered, before adding. "Plus, we have plenty of time, so there's no need to rush."

Hanyu blushed slightly, feeling embarrassed. "Oh ...auauau, sorry."

"There's no need to be sorry, hon," Ant' said, coming up next to her, grinning. "We're all pretty excited to be here, so let's get the tokens so we can play."

"Mii~ so how do we get the tokens to play the games, anyway …?" Rika asked.

I started walking and motioned for everyone to follow me, as we walked towards a small line full of people, I explained how to get the tokens. "To get the tokens, we need to go to the token machine over there," I said, pointing at the small line of other gamers. "The tokens can only be used in this arcade, some games take three tokens, and others take one or two. It all depends on what you're playing, though."

"Yeah, like the racing booths," Ant' added. "Those cost four tokens, the fighting games are three, and so are the first-person shooters. Some games even give you tickets so you can buy stuff from the prize counter."

"D-did you ever win a prize here before, Antoine?" Hanyu asked, shyly from beside him.

He nodded. "Yeah, once. But, it wasn't anything big, just a red _Pokemon_ wrist watch. I wasn't very good at playing games back then, so my dad help me win the tickets, that was fun," he answered, smiling a little.

We waited in line behind a few people in front of the token machine, after a minute or so, it was finally our turn. I dug in my pocket and pulled out my wallet, on the machine it had a list of how much tokens you got for what amount of cash you put in. Eight tokens were five dollars, for sixteen tokens, it was ten dollars and so on, I decided it was best to get thirty-three tokens, which came up to twenty-two dollars, and split them equally amongst everyone.

I took out a twenty and two dollar bills, and put them into the machine. A moment later, a river of gold tokens with a controller engraved on it came poring out into the coin catcher. I tore off one of the small, blue plastic bags on the side of the machine, putting every last token into it, then turned to the girls and Ant', smiling.

"Now that that's done, lets hit the games, shall we," I said, nodding towards the gaming area.

Rika and Hanyu looked at each other and smiled, while Ant' replied. "Yeah! Lets get this show on the road! I already know what I'm playing first," he said, happily, marching farther into the arcade.

The rest of us followed.

The first game we started off with was _Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 _and _Street Fighter 3_, which was chosen by Ant', we played a few fights against each other. Hanyu and Rika played pretty well, though they were less one sided matches when they played against each other. The funny thing was that Antoine's wrapped up, braised, hand kept getting in the way when it was our turn to play, if anything I tried to show a little bit of mercy and go easy on him, but that only lasted for a moment before I pick Sakura and M. Bison, beating him a few good times. After our little private tournament of sorts, we got off the coin operated system to let a couple of younger kids play.

The next game we ended up playing by vote, was _Sonic The Hedgehog 2_. Our cream puff loving goddess couldn't get enough of that game, so after a while we left some tokens with her and left Hanyu there to go play some of the other games.

A few games later, and here I was with Rika and Antoine playing _House Of The Dead 3_, it was a good thing it had two machine gun-controllers. Every time one of us died, we passed it on to the next person, me and Ant' played first. Then, he died, so he hopped off and let Rika start playing, which was right in the middle of the level-one boss battle.

"Rika, go for the head! It's killing us," I said, reloading the gun-controller, as we continuing to fire at the huge, zombified security guard chasing us called Death. He had a club made out of flesh and skulls, though I bet Mr. X could kick his ass with little to no trouble, and don't even get me started on Nemesis.

"I trying, I'm not used to using this type of controller," Rika replied back in her adult voice.

"Well, welcome to the arcade," I said smugly. "Most of the first-person shooter controllers are like this, I've been coming to the arcade since I was in kindergarten, I'm used to it."

"Yeah, well I'd be doing better I had a controller like the one to your _Xbox_," she muttered back, reloading and shooting.

I laughed. "Ah ha ha~ considering how good you are playing _Left4Dead_, I have no doubts about that," I said with glee.

We continued the game, shooting Death and countless other zombies that appeared whenever we got to a certain point in the battle. We almost won, almost ...that was until the fast moving army zombies with knives showed up, along with the chainsaw zombies, we died pretty fast after that.

The bold, bloody words **Game Over** appeared on the screen, followed by the count down from ten to continue or quit. The ten second countdown ended and the game restart from the beginning, playing a preview of what the game looked like as the computer played. I would've put more coins in to play again, only there were no more tokens.

"Man, well, this sucks," I muttered, tossing the empty token bag into the crash can near the coin operated system, before turning to Rika. "But, we had fun, I can say that much."

"That was intense. I really enjoyed that game. It was almost as if I was inside of it thanks to the controller," Rika said, putting the gun-controller back in the hard plastic holder.

I smiled at her, doing the same. "Well, it is for entertainment, if you don't have fun, what's the point. Am I right?"

"That's very true."

Rika nodded, smirking. We were about to walk over to get Hanyu so we could leave to do other things on the boardwalk, only she ended up coming to us, with a sad look on her face.

"Oh, hey, we were just about to come get you," Ant' said, smiling. Before he asked, starring at her expression. "What's with the sad face …?"

"I ran out of tokens, so I couldn't play anything else," Hanyu answered, sadly. "Auau~ I was about to play _Pacman,_too."

I chuckled at her, even when sad, she still somehow found a way to make it cute. "Don't worry, Hanyu. We ran out of tokens, too," I said, patting her on the head between her horns. "We're actually about to leave to do some other stuff, but, I bet we might be able to come back tomorrow before we head home."

Hanyu gave me a hopeful look. "Really …?"

I shrugged. "Who knows, that's all up to Kim," I answered. "But, if you give her your best puppy dog face I'm sure she'll give in and let us stop here, again."

When we all left out the air conditioned arcade, back into the cool moist air of the shore, the place we decide to go next was the amusement park. It wasn't as big as, let's say, _Six Flags_, but it was still fun. They had a roller coaster, a lot of game stands, some food places and a ride called The Slingshot. It was one of my favorite on the boardwalk, once you got into one of the seats it shot you up into the sky so high you could almost see every casino in the air, and your stomach literally dropped when you came back down, almost like bungee jumping.

I swear I've never heard Hanyu scream so much, while with the rest of us it was a little between excitement and scariness, for her it was pure terror fulled screams. But, as she was shot up into the air, it was hard to tell the difference at the time. Hopefully, she'd think it was fun, afterward, at least.

**~ ~(Part3)~ ~**

"That was not fun! That was terrifying, I felt like I was about to fall out my seat," Hanyu said, sounding kind of upset. Maybe it was because we laughed at her. "Auau~ I don't understand how you three could enjoy that so much."

"Awe, come on, Hanyu, it wasn't that bad," Rika said, giving a small shrug. "And you were just fine, I was right there next to you. Stop being such a baby."

"Auau~ I'm not being a baby," Hanyu retorted, pouting. "...But, that ride was really scary."

"You were okay when you rode on the roller coaster, the slingshot's not that different," I said.

"Yes it is, the roller coaster didn't go that high, or spin around in the air."

Ant' sighed and shook his head, patting Hanyu on the shoulder. "Hon, you may not have liked the ride as much as the rest of us. But, you've got to admit," he smiled before continuing. "What that lady said was pretty nice, though, someone outside of us finally likes your horns. She even said they were cute."

As we sat on the couch in our hotel room living space, watching _Underworld _on the average sized TV, I smiled, thinking back to that quick moment after we'd left the amusement park. Hanyu had just gotten off the Slingshot, still pretty shaken up over the whole thing, a few minutes later a woman came up to us and started gushing over Hanyu telling her that she liked her horns. It was obvious that she was a cosplayer, she was dressed up like Chun-Li from _Street Fighter_, along with having a set of cat ears on her head, she looked Asian, but I don't think she was Chinese. Korean, maybe.

She talked to us for a while, asking what Hanyu horns were made of since they looked so real. I made up a quick lie, telling her it was made out of hard plastic, metal and spray paint. The woman smiled happily, waving goodbye to us before she turned to leave, it made me wonder if she was planning on making something similar to Hanyu's horns herself. She seemed like the type to try.

"She was really nice, though," I added, smiling at her. "See, not everyone thinks you're horns are weird. That lady was a good example of that."

Hanyu couldn't help but smile at my words. What the woman said was true, though, Hanyu's horns did make her standout, in a good way, though.

As the movie got closed to it's ending point, where Victor dies, three small knocks came from the front door. I got up, not bothering to pause the movie since I'd seen it so many times, and went over to the door, looking out the peephole. It was Kim, I unlocked and opened the door to let her in and she came stumbling into the hotel room, crashing right into me.

"Oh, are you okay, sis …?" I asked concerned as I caught her to stop her from falling. She giggled and nodded. That was when the strong smell of alcohol hit my nose.

...Wait, was Kim drunk.

"It's good to see you too, Kev'! Ah ha~ you won't believe the fun I had, I won, so much money! I'm so glad I came back for that rabbit's foot. Damn thing got me free drink," she exclaimed.

Yep, she was defiantly drunk.

"Kim, you're drunk," I said, stating the obvious, carrying her towards her and the girls bedroom. "You should sleep this off, how much did you drink ...?"

"I-I'm only had five or six shots, and I'm not drunk, I'm just a little tipsy, that's all," she said. Great, now she was trying to make it like she wasn't drunk, can someone say denial. "There's a difference, you'll understand that some day, little brother."

"Right, sure I will."

I sighed. Rika opened the room door for me, and I laid her on the bed and put a sheet over top of her. Kim snuggled into them, not even bothering to change her clothes and Rika smiled.

"Mii~ goodnight, sir, I hope you feel better by morning," she said, cutely.

Kim glanced over at the clock. "I had no idea it was this late yet," she muttered into the pillow. "Nighty, night, guys."

She dozed off pretty fast after that, and from the loud snoring coming from the room, I could tell she'd be sleep for a good while, maybe past morning, with one hell of a hangover I'd like to add. I just couldn't wait to get back to Philly to tell Erika about this fun trip, she'll have a good laugh about this.

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><p>And that's it for now, the next chapter will be out soon, remember to review and all that, until next time.<p>

Peace~!


	13. Chapter 12: Happy Birthday Little Bro

Hello there readers, I know it's been a while, school has honestly been a pain. But, hey, you still have to do the work. I've just recently heard of a Higurashi OVA movie called Higurashi No Naku Koro Outbreak, I watched the trailer and I'm not gonna lie, I was down right excited for it. It sorta reminded me of the movie The Crazies. It's something I really want to see, I can't wait until they sub it. Anyway, enjoy!

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><p>Chapter 12: Happy Birthday Little Bro<p>

_Beep, Beep, Beep!_

I reached over from under my blanket and pounded my fist down on the snooze button on the alarm clock, the plastic device read ten o'clock in blue digital numbers. I sighed, sitting up, rubbing the sleep out of my eye. Any other day I would have slept in a little more, especially on a Saturday. But, today wasn't just any normal Saturday ...no, today was special, and it only came once a year.

Today, was my little brother's birthday.

I probably wasn't as excited about it as he was, but I was happy; Ant' has been waiting for this day for a while, so that gave him a reason to be as hype as he wanted to be.

"Happy birthday to ya, happy birthday to ya, happy birthday~!" He sang as he opened the door of my room, walking in.

I sat up tiredly, but smiled. "Well, would you look who it is, happy birthday, bro."

"Hehe~ thanks," Ant' said, grinning, taking a seat on at the foot of the bed. "I thought you'd be up, you know, with your alarm clock being as loud as it is. Could hear it all the way down the hall."

I shrugged. "Well, that was why I got it, can't be sleeping in during the school year," I said. "Anyway, where is everyone else?"

"Kim's down stairs in the kitchen, and Rika and Hanyu," he thought for a moment, before continuing. "I think they're still sleep, yesterday was pretty exhausting. But, hey, it was fun!"

"Yeah, it was," I nodded in agreement.

Yesterday had been a blast, it has been almost a week since our beach trip, and since we had nothing else to do in the house but sit around, we decided to go to the playground in Fairmount park. We played a few games, like man hunt and threw a Frisbee around for a bit, we even played zombie tag, the _28 days later _version, as Ant' put it.

After our game of tag, it started getting close to six o'clock, so the last thing we did was play a good game of basketball. It was me and Hanyu, against Antoine and Rika. We were playing street basketball, so there weren't that many rules, which was a good thing, because the girls were traveling and double dribbling a lot.

They did pretty well, what I didn't count on in the beginning through was Hanyu being afraid of the ball, I was so used to just passing it at top speed whenever I played, I sorta beamed it at the ground and it bounced towards her at high speed, it would have probably hit her in the head if she hadn't ducked as fast as she had. I felt like a complete ass after that for forgetting it was her first time trying basketball, but after a few quick tips and showing the girls how to shoot and dribble, they got better as the game went on. They still weren't a match for Ant' and me, since I was taller and could dunk to ball and Ant' used to be on a team.

"So, do you know what Kim has planned for today …?" Ant' asked, starring at me.

I shook my head. "Nope," I answered plainly.

Antoine didn't seem to be convinced, though. "You sure, usually, sis tells you everything so you guys can surprise me with something."

"That's true, but she didn't tell me a thing yesterday," I said, throwing the blanket off me and swinging my feet over the side of the bed. "Besides, if I told everything Kim told me, it wouldn't be much of a surprise and the whole thing would be ruined."

"...You have a point," Ant' said, before shrugging. He stood up and started walking towards the door, adding. "Oh, and Kim said it's time for breakfast. I mean, I know she can't cook as well as you can, but even she can't burn pre-made pancakes and bacon."

We laughed, and Ant' smiled, shutting the door behind him.

I got out of bed and head into the bathroom to clean myself up. I brushed my teeth and washed my face, I felt glad that I took a shower the night before, there was no way I'd be able to go to bed sticky and sweaty. After I was done my normal morning routine, I got dressed, putting on a button up, red shirt and a pair of blue distress jeans, that had a rip in the right knee and left shin.

I checked myself in the mirror to make sure I looked decent, and my hair was combed the way I wanted it, and started down the stairs. I could hear Ant' and Kim talking loudly as I got to the last step, making my way into the kitchen, I saw Ant' sitting at the table, while Kim threw a few more strips of turkey bacon on the hot pan on the stove top.

"Morning," I greeted as I walked into the kitchen.

Kim turned to me and smiled. "Good morning, Kevin," she said. "Are the girls up yet? Cause, breakfast is almost ready."

"Nope, they're still asleep."

"Well, one of you could go and wake their asses up. Their foods gonna get cold, other wise."

"I'll do it," Ant' said as he got up from his seat. He walked out the kitchen and head up the stairs, once we were sure he was gone, I turned to Kim.

"So, what's the plan this year," I asked, smiling, leaning back in the chair. "Surprise party? Something along those lines."

"Actually, yeah, something like that, I was thinking of throwing a surprise party here at home," she answered, flipping the sizzling bacon over. "Invite some of his friends over, baking a cake this time instead of getting it from the market, I'll have to go to Walmart to get the ice cream and party stuff, though."

I gave a nod. "Alright, so, is there anything I should do …?"

"Uh ...let's see," Kim stood there in thought for a moment, then glanced over at me. "You could go get his _PlayStation 3 _from the game store. Either that, or distract him for a while, ya know, do something outside the house for today and I'll handle the gifts."

"I guess I could find something for us to do today," I said. "But, I wasn't really planning anything. God, it's hard thinking of something right on the spot, I always plan ahead for these types of things."

"Hey, it doesn't really matter what you do." Kim said as she cut off the stove and took the last of the bacon out the pan. "As long as he's out of the house until this evening, everything should be fine, you never let me down any other time he needed to be distracted."

"Alright, then, I'm sure I'll come up with something," I said with a sigh.

After a few minutes or so, three pairs of footsteps could be heard walking down the stairs. Then, Rika, Hanyu and Ant' walked into the kitchen and took a seat at the table. The girls were probably still tired from yesterday, but they seemed well rested enough, though I'd have to choose somewhere for us to take it easy today, because even I didn't feel like doing much.

"Morning, it's good to see you two finally join the living, again. I take it you both slept good last night," Kim said, giving a wink, smiling at the girls.

"Mii~ yes we did, sir, we slept very good," Rika responded, cutely, rubbing the sleep out her eyes. "I felt like I was asleep for years, before Antoine came and woke us both up."

"Auau~ I had the most wonderful dream," Hanyu said with a dreamy look in her eyes. "I dreamed I was floating on clouds of cream puffs, and every time I ate one, two more took it's place ...auauau, it was cream puff heaven."

Ant' burst into laughter, pointing at her. "Ah ha ha~ oh, man! So that's why you were chewing on Rika's pillow when I walked into the room! Now that's funny!"

"I-I didn't know w-what I was doing," Hanyu stuttered out, a slight blush appearing on her cheeks, while she pouted. "Auau ...I-I was sleep. It's not like I could control it, the dream just felt so real. And, I haven't had a cream puff in a long time."

"You know, they say that sometimes dreams are a way of your subconscious telling you what you want most," I said as we all snicked at the horned goddess. "If you want a cream puff that bad, we could go and get some later when we go out ...my treat."

" ...Auau~ I'd really like that a lot."

"All this talk about sweets is really making me hungry," Kim said. She put a plate in front of each of us and took a seat next to me, smiling, as she added. "Let's dig in, huh, the sooner we finish breakfast, the sooner we can start the day."

"Mii~ I agree, let's eat, everyone," Rika smiled. She clapped her hands together and said, "itadakimasu," and Hanyu did the same. This was something they did sometimes, it was mostly done during breakfast and dinner, though.

As we ate, we talked a little bit about different things, like what we were going to do for today, or the places we could go. Eventually, Ant' brought up the fact that it was his birthday to the girls, who were somewhat surprised.

"Mii~ I had no idea, happy birthday, Antoine," Rika smiled as she ate her pancakes. "That mean it's your own special day today," she said, before beaming at him. "Niipa~!"

"Ah ha, thanks, Rika!"

"So is there anything you wanted to do today, like a place you wanted to go …?" Hanyu asked, tilting her head cutely to the side.

Ant' shrugged. "I haven't really thought on it ...if I had to choose a place, I'd say the skate park," he answered.

I raised an eyebrow at him, taking a sip of orange juice. "Why the skate park?"

"Well, it's just, we haven't been there since the summer started," Ant' said. "I mean, when was the last time we really went skateboarding. Like, two months ago, right?" I thought about it, and nodded, and he continued talking. "I miss the feeling of being on a board, riding down ramps, it's refreshing, you know what I mean, Kev'?"

"Yeah, I get it, bro," I said. I leaned back in my chair, thinking over it, this just might be the thing that gets him out of the house for the day. "So, that's what you want to do, go to the skate park?"

"Yep."

"Alright, looks like I'm taking out my board today," I said, smirking. "Teach you who still the best boarder in this house."

"Psst~ please, I could skate circles around you if I wanted!" Ant' boosted, with a smug grin.

"What about Rika and Hanyu, what will they do while you two are both skating and stuff …?" Kim asked.

She was right, we couldn't just leave the girls out of the fun, but they didn't know how to skateboard. I think I still had an old board in my room somewhere, one of them could probably use that, and the other could use Kim's roller blades.

"I could teach them a few things," I said with a shrug. "You're never too old to start skateboarding. By the way, sis, do you still have those old roller blades from when you were little?"

"Yeah ...what for?"

"Cause I have another smaller skateboard, but instead of them sharing that, I thought using your roller blades would be a nice for one of the girls to use."

"I guess they can hold them for today, It's not like I use them anyway."

"Ah ha~ that's great, So, now we have a place to go for today," I responded, before turning to Rika and Hanyu. "Make sure you dress in some good skating clothes. It's best to wear pants or jeans, instead of sundresses."

"Alright, sir," Rika said. "I don't know how to skateboard, though."

"Auau~ m-me either, what if I fall," Hanyu nervously added.

I smiled at them, then said. "Don't worry, you two. Even if you don't know how to ride, or you end up falling, you won't get hurt that bad since your just starting, trust me, I would know. I fell off a good two or three times when I first started skateboarding just from cruising alone."

"Yeah, I'll admit, I did too," Ant' admitted. If it was to calm down anyone but Hanyu, he would've never admitted to falling off his skateboard. Crushes are funny things sometimes. "It's all about balance, but, to be honest, I think you'd be good a skateboarding, Hanyu."

"Auau~ y-you think so …?"

"Uh-huh," Antoine nodded, smiling. "But, I think you'd be even better at rollerblading. You can try both to see which you like best, though."

So with that being said, we continued eating breakfast. Afterward Ant' and Rika helped me clean the kitchen, while Hanyu and my sister straightened up the living room, then we all got dressed, well, everyone but Kim, who was planing on making Antoine's birthday cake, she decided to have David pick up the ice cream and gifts, since he was coming to the party anyway.

The three of us left out with to have a good time, but I don't think anyone was happier then Ant' today, I just wish mom and dad were here to see him another year older.

**~ ~(Part2)~ ~**

The sun was slowly beginning to set over the horizon as night time approached, the skate park was almost empty now, but a few people stayed, trying to get their last tricks in on the ramps and rails before it closed for the day.

'The High Mile' was one of the top ten skate parks in the city, a lot of people came here all year round, but it was more so during the summer when it was the most packed.

Antoine was still teaching Hanyu how to balance right so that she wouldn't fall on her roller skates, again.

"You're doing good, just remember to remain balanced, move one foot after the other," Ant' instructed her as he held her hand, walking her through the basics.

Hanyu wobbled a little bit, but luckily didn't fall. "Auau~ I-I think I've got it now," she said, uttering to herself. "One foot after the other, right?"

"Yep, one foot after the other, do you want me to let go …?"

"Y-yes ...I want t-to try it on my own."

"Alright, I'm letting go, hon."

Ant' let her hand go and she went skating a few feet on her own, placing one foot after the next, her balance was pretty good, way better then it was earlier today. But, it wasn't good enough, because she started wobbling slightly, then out of no where her feet slipped out from in front of her and Hanyu landed on her butt.

"You alright, Hanyu," I asked, walking over to her.

She nodded, rubbing her backside from the impact. "Y-yes, I'm fine, Kevin," Hanyu said, "auauau ...I can't get this at all!"

"It's nothing to get frustrated over, Hanyu, you just have to practice," I said, smiling, while lifting up my skateboard. "I was never good at riding my board, and even now I'm still not as good as some people, but I got where I am through practicing. When I fall, I get right back up and try again."

"Bro's right, Han, it's like the saying gos 'practice makes perfect'," Antoine said to her in a cheerful tone, kneeling next to her. "You might not be that good at it now, but keep at it and you'll be like them over there," he pointed to our left.

We all turned our head and saw a group of about five people rollerblading down rails and grinding the low ledges and steps, one of them that was on the high ramp even fell as he went down, for what looked like, the first time, but his friends helped him up and he tried again, and succeeded, going up one end and coming down the next doing small tricks, and all his friends started cheering him on.

"Ah ha ha~ See that, keep trying and doing your best, you'll get there in no time," Ant' finished.

"I-I don't think I'll ever be that good," Hanyu said, shyly.

Ant' shrugged. "You'll never know until you try."

As the two of them talked, I took that time to look around the area to see if I could see Rika anywhere. For a second, I didn't see her, that was until she came riding over a small ledge on the skateboard she was using, only for her to go stumbling off of it, from the looks of things she was trying to ride off of it. It was easy to tell she wasn't doing it right.

"Well, I'd say Rika's doing pretty good," I mused as we watched her try again, and fail.

"Auau~ she's doing way better then I am," Hanyu muttered. "I just keep falling down, but Rika's riding so well, she doesn't even fall anymore."

"That's because it a little easier to balance yourself on a board, at least it is to me," Ant's said smiling. He stood up and cupped his hands over his mouth, before yelling. "Rika, when you get to the edge, left the front of the board a little bit, it'll help!"

"But, won't I fall off like that, sir ...?" She asked back.

"Nope, just trust me, that's how it's done!"

Rika gave a short nod, and picked up the skateboard, walking back onto the ledge. She placed the board at her feet and pushed off three times before standing up on the board with her knees bent slightly just like I'd showed her easier today. Once she got close to the edge, she lifted the board up just like Antoine instructed her to and came riding off the edge, wobbling slightly as she did. The blue haired miko rode right up to us with a cute grin on her face, placing her right foot on the ground, coming to a complete stop.

"Ah ha~ nice one, Rika, nice," I said, holding my hand up and open.

Rika gave me a quick high-five. "Mii~ I thought I was about to fall to a moment there," she said, then turned to Ant', beaming at him. "Thanks for the big help, Antoine! Niipa~!"

"Hehe~ it was nothing, I was just telling you how to do a basic thing," Ant' said, giving a small chuckle. "You can thank me when I teach you how to ollie."

"Ollie …? Auau~ Is that a trick, too?"

"Yeah, it's pretty much when you jump the board."

"So, can you ollie, Antoine," Rika asked as she picked up her board, hold it under her arm.

Ant' smirked, nodding. "Rika, I can do more then that," he ran and hopped on his skateboard like a pro, rolling towards a set of low placed rails. "Just watch and learn, Rika!" He kicked down on the back of the board and popped it, while at the same time jumping and sliding his foot along the deck. To Rika and Hanyu, it must have looked like the skateboard magically stuck to his feet, but I knew how to do it as well, I wasn't as good a skater as my little brother, but I could hold my own. Ant' gridded on the steel rail, and ollie off it in a kickflip.

...Yep, he was being a damn showoff again.

"Yahoo~ now that's how it's done!" Ant' shouted, as he pumped his fist in the air and turned his board around, coming back towards us.

"You're a real showoff, you know that," I said to him as he got close.

He laughed. "Ah ha ha~ you're just hatin' cause you can't do what I do."

I shrugged. "So, don't forget I'm the one who help you get that good," I reminded him, smugly. "The only reason why you got better then me was because I stopped skating and you kept practicing, brat."

"Psst, that still doesn't change the fact that I'm better then you, now does it!"

After waiting a while longer, I used an excuse saying that I was going to the bathroom so I could call Kim and see if everything was ready so we could head home, the park would be closing any minute now. I opened the door and walked into the one-person restroom, locking the door, and pulling out my cellphone, dialing the house number through the speed dial.

It rang a few times, before someone picked up, surprisingly though, it wasn't Kim at all.

"_Hello, Erika speaking!"_

"Oh, hey, I didn't know you were at the house yet," I said in slight surprise. She was usually the late one to arrive.

"_Yeah, well I am ...so what's up, you keeping the birthday boy busy enough?" _She asked.

"You know it," I answered, before asking. "Is everything ready yet? The skate park is about to close and I won't be able to keep Ant' outside forever."

"_Don't worry, you won't have to keep him there for much longer, you can actually start heading back here if you want, everything's pretty much done," _Erika said. I could here talking and moving in the background, so it was obvious to tell that there were a good few people at the house. _"And, Kim just walked through the door with Ants' gifts a few minutes ago."_

"Oh ...just to ask, how many people are there, anyway …?" I asked, leaning against the bathroom sink.

Erika sucked her teeth. _"Hmm, there's your Uncle Jim, and he brought your little cousin ...oh, and your grandma's here too, a few of Ant's friends, David, and Carlos stopped by a while ago to drop off a present for him, he wanted to stay, but he had something to take care of, that what he said, at least," _she explained. So there were a good seven or so people there, not too many, but enough for a real party full of family and friends.

"Alright, tell everyone to be ready, were on our way."

"_Okay, see ya when you get here, Kev~!"_

"See ya."

And with that I hung up the phone, and put it back into my pocket. I didn't waste any time walking out the bathroom, heading towards the others.

"Guys, I think it's about time we head home," I said to them, looking around, everyone else had mostly left and it was starting to get dark. "The parks gonna be closing soon."

"Auau ...but, I was so close to not falling," Hanyu said, sadly.

Rika patted her on the head, giving one of her cute smiles. "Mii~ don't worry, Hanyu, I'm sure we'll come back here again some other time."

"She's right, we might even be able to bring Kim along if she not working, she's good at rollerblading, she'll teach you a thing or two," I added.

"...O-okay."

"Well, lets get going!" Antoine said, happily, as he hopped on his board and started rolling toward the exit gate. We followed behind him, as we walked, I told Rika and Hanyu about the surprise party back at the house, along with who were there. Ant' really seemed to be a in a hurry to get home, he probably had an idea of what to expect, but wasn't completely sure. This party was gonna rock either way, I could feel it.

**~ ~(Part3)~ ~ **

The doors of the Septa bus shut behind as it pulled off to the next stop down the street. After we made it down the block to the front door of the house, I ended up being the first one to get to it, which didn't really matter because I was the only one of us with the house key, I took the keys out of my back pocket and unlocked the door. As I opened the door, walking into the house, I noticed that all the lights in the living room and kitchen were off, of course I knew that everyone was probably hiding and waiting for on of us to cut the light on so they could jump out and surprise the birthday boy.

Knowing this, I let him walk in front of me to give him the honor of turning on the lights. Ant' flipped on the switch, and a loud yell came from different places around the room as everyone jumped out of their hiding spots.

"Surprise! Happy birthday, Antoine~!" They all exclaimed happily.

Ant' jumped, giving a slightly surprised looked. "I knew it, I knew you guys were throwing me a surprise party," he said, smiling.

My grandma laughed. "Are you sure, you look surprised to me."

"Well, I ...um, I had a feeling," Ant' admitted. "But it's all the same, I knew it subconsciously."

Ant's two friends, Jino and Hakeem, came up to him, both of them wearing grins on their faces as they congratulated him. Jino was the youngest of the three, he had tanned skin, dirty blonde hair that was cut short in the front, with a long braid in the back, and hazel brown eyes and was around the same height as Ant', wearing a button up white shirt, blue jeans and sneakers.

Hakeem was the tallest and oldest of the three, and was only a year older then Ant' was now. He had curly, light brown hair and light jade colored eyes, he had moved here from Egypt when he was young, and his parents were good friends of the family. Hakeem was one of Ant's first friends and after he started getting bully over the whole thing with nine-eleven, Ant' took it upon his self to help him whenever someone tried to give him crap because of his race and religious beliefs. It doesn't happened anymore though, and my little brother was part of the reason why. Hakeem had on a pair of black shorts, a short sleeve green shirt, brown sandal and had a white cap on called a kufi.

"Yo, happy birthday, man!" Jino said, slapping Ant' on the back playfully, "who knows, maybe you'll grown a few inches this year."

"Um ...Jino, you do know you're the same height, right," Hakeem pointed out quietly.

Jino shrugged. "And, if you haven't noticed, I'm an inch taller then the birthday boy here."

"I haven't noticed."

"Well, that's because you're a freakin' giant compared to us!"

"I'm not _that _much taller then you guys," Hakeem sighed, before looking to Ant'. "Anyway, happy birthday, Antoine, thanks for inviting me over."

"Awe, come on, we're friends aren't we, why wouldn't I invite you," Antoine laughed, pulling his tall friend into a one armed hug. "Just make sure you invite me to your birthday party next time."

"Oh ...uh, sorry, I-I can't, my family doesn't do birthdays and stuff, remember," Hakeem reminded him.

Ant' sucked his teeth, and nodded. "Oh yeah, damn, you're right. My bad, I forgot," he said. "But, hey, I can always get you something for one of your holidays, so it's no big deal!"

"For real …?"

"Yeah, what are friends for, huh."

"I'll get you something, too," Jino said as well.

As the three of them talked away, I made my way over to my uncle and little cousin, greeting them. My uncle was a tall man with dark brown skin and dark brown eyes and his hair was in a buzz cut. His daughter, was younger then Ant', she had just turn nine-years-old in May, she was light skinned and had brownish/black hair and her eyes were the same color, she was more or less the baby of the family because she always carried her _Strawberry Shortcake_ doll with her almost everywhere she went and sucked her thumb sometimes, which was a habit my uncle Jimmy was badly trying to break.

"Hey, uncle Jimmy, Diamond, it's good to see you again," I said with a smile.

He nodded and smiled back. "It's nice to see you, too. You should call a bit more, baby girl here has been missing you," uncle said, ruffling Diamonds hair. Which annoyed her more then anything else.

"Daddy, your gonna mess up my hair!" She complained, frowning.

Uncle chuckled, taking his hand off her head. "Sorry, baby girl, I'll leave your hair alone, alright."

"Okay," Diamond said, then she turned her attention to me, standing up straight, holding her fist out for a pound. "What's up, cousin Kevin~!"

I laughed and fist-bumped her. "Nothing much, Diamond. Sorry I didn't call more, I was sorta," I stopped for a moment to think of the best word to us. "...Distracted." I took her hand and started guiding her over towards the Rika and Hanyu. "But, there are some kids I want you to meet." As we stopped in front of the girls, I introduced the three of them to each other. "Diamond, this is Rika and her cousin, Hanyu. Guys, this is my cousin."

"Mii~ it's nice to meet you, sir, I'm Rika," the blue haired miko greeted her polity, giving her a small bow.

"Auau~ I-I'm Hanyu, it's a p-pressure," the horned goddess greeted also.

"Why did she call me, sir?" My little cousin asked, confused, glancing up at me.

I chuckled. "It's just a thing she does, just say hi."

It was obvious that Diamond was nervous, anytime she was nervous or even upset, she'd chewing on her thumb nail, which is what she was doing right now. "O-okay ...hi, I'm Diamond. S-so ...um, where do you two live?"

"Actually, their both sorta staying here with Kim and us for a while," I answered for them.

She looked up at me in surprise. "Really, how come?"

"It's ...complicated, we have our reasons, though."

"Oh."

Out the corner of my eye, I saw Erika sneaking up behind Hanyu. I couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at her, she looked ahead and saw me starring at her, before making a shushing motion in front of her lips. I rolled my eyes and once she got close enough, she put Hanyu into a surprise attack hug from behind.

"Hi, cutie pie, you miss me!" Erika exclaimed happy, almost lifting the goddess off her feet. "Ah ha~ your so cute! I have so many new outfits I want to try on you!"

"E-Erika-san, c-can you please stop hugging me so tightly!"

"Oh ...Sorry, Hanyu," Erika apologized, loosening her hold, but still not letting her go. "And, what did I say before, just call me Erika."

"Mii~ you might want to stop hugging her so close like that, sir," Rika said in concern. "I think you're embarrassing her."

After a while of catching up with everyone and introducing the girls to our other family members and friends they didn't know, Ant' looked around at everyone and asked loudly. "Hey, are we about to get this party started or not?"

"Ah ha~ Antoine's right, let's get started." My uncle laughed and walked over to the CD played, that was placed near to TV set, and cut it on. There must have already been a disk already in there because the first song to come on was one of my uncles favorites old school songs from the _House Party_ movie.

_Full Force, Hype  
>Hype (go go)!<br>Full Force get hype_

_Yeah, this is E-Coff_  
><em>And Full Force wanted me to come<em>  
><em>Down and help them blow something up.<em>  
><em>So if ya' with that,<em>  
><em>Let's kick that.<em>

"Oh yes, this is my song! Let's go, David," Kim exclaimed.

"You don't have to say it twice, babe," David said as they both walked into the center of the living room turned dance floor. It was a good thing they moved the couches and things out the way.

_Yeah, ya' look good.  
>But can ya' cook good?<br>Can ya' read or is your brain like wood?  
>Do ya' have sex?<br>Or do ya' make love?  
>How do ya' live?<br>Do ya' give or do ya' take love.  
>Girl, you so fine.<br>Could you be?  
>Or do I slack in the back of a<br>W-wic-wic-wack line.  
>Yeah, the fruit looks right but that...<em>

_Ain't my type of hype!_

_Act your age.  
>Not the size of those pants your wear.<br>So tight.  
>(You look ripe - yeah)<br>But getting everywhere you walk around  
>With your head on up in the sky.<br>Oh why ya wanna mess around with so many guys._

_We used to have fun._  
><em>Thought you'd be the one.<em>  
><em>To be by my side.<em>  
><em>But o-o-o-h I was wrong.<em>

_I thought your love was strong._  
><em>But it was so weak that I could not compete.<em>  
><em>Girl you're such a freak h-ho ho oh.<em>

_You look so good_  
><em>(You look so good. I wish could but that just)<em>  
><em>Ain't my type of hype<em>  
><em>(Me and you was crazy cool)<em>  
><em>Your love's so fine (You blow my mind but that)<em>  
><em>Ain't my type of hype baby<em>  
><em>Ain't my type of hype!<em>

As the song played, Kim and David did a ton of old school dance moves like the running man and ended it off with the famous partner dance, the Kid n' Play. After a while I got tired of waiting and started dancing when the next track on the disk started, my uncle even took the time to teach Rika and Hanyu a thing or two when he saw them both trying to mimic Kim and David, but couldn't quite get it down.

All and all, it was a nice night and a great party for Ant's birthday, once we ate the dinner my uncle made at his restaurant for tonight, we had cake and ice cream a while later and also gave Ant' his gifts from everyone. By the time it was over at ten, close to eleven o' clock, everyone was heading home, tired out and ready to hit the hay after such a good time.

**~ ~(Part4)~ ~**

I fell back onto my bed with an exhausted sigh, after everything was cleaned up and the left over food was put away, I took a shower and quickly changed into my night clothes. After a day like today I was definitely sleeping in tomorrow, and I was sure that everyone else had that same plan in mind. Although, despite having such a long day, Ant' was still downstairs playing on his new _PlayStation 3_, but I was too tired to care much about what he did right now, so I climbed under the blanket with the last bit of energy I could muster and dropped onto the pillow looking almost like the living dead.

I closed my eyes and started drifting off, welcoming the wonderful bliss of darkness, or I would have gone completely to sleep, if not for a knock at my door.

"Kevin, you still awake in there," Ant's voice came through the door.

I groaned. "What do you want ...aren't you playing your game?"

"Well, yeah, but I wanted to ask you something, can I come in?"

"Oh, God. ...Fine."

The door opened, and Antoine came walking in, he had this look on his face that told me he wanted to ask something that I would most likely say no to.

"So, what is it?" I asked sleepily, not even bothering to open my eyes. "What do you want?"

"Um ...I was thinking, I know that I got a lot of gifts this year," Ant' started nervously. "But, I didn't really get anything from you, yet."

" ...What do you mean, I got you that kitty litter box, cat food, and a collar for Bern, what more do you want?"

"Yeah, but that's stuff we needed anyway, it's not like we could just keep letting her us a foil pan with litter in it," Ant' stated. He then continued, saying. "I know that I may be asking a little much, but ...can I use the monkey's paw?"

"No," I said without hesitation.

I heard him groan, I could just imagination the frown on his face. "Aw ...come on, just this once, I promise I won't ask you for anything else. Just one wish, that's it."

"No, the last thing we need you messing something up again."

"B-but, Kev'!"

"I said no, I'm not changing my mind," I said sternly, pulling the blanket over my face to show him I didn't want to talk anymore.

Ant' let out a huff and stormed out the room. "Fine, see the next time I try to be nice and ask you something!" And then the door slammed.

I sighed. "That brat, I swear he's so irking sometimes," I muttered.

I feel back to sleep, sleeping deeper then I had in a while, little did I know, Ant' had come back in and took the monkey's paw in the middle of the night, even though I said not to. And, that was going to make things even more difficult.

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><p>And that's it for now, the next chapter will be out soon. Also remember to review and leave suggestions, Shingeki no Kyojin has really been taking up my time, well, that and The Last Of Us, along with school, but I'm getting back on track with my other stories so don't worry I'll be updating those too. Until next time.<p>

Peace~!


	14. Chapter 13: Turning Point, Enter Rena

What's up, people! I know I haven't updated in a while, but I'm back now and better then ever! Took some time to practice my writing skills, and keep myself on point, anyway, enjoy!

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><p>Chapter 13: Turning Point, Enter Rena<p>

_Beep!Beep!Beep!_

The sound of my alarm clock once again disturbed my nice sleep like it usually did everyday, loud, annoying, and unforgiving. I cracked open one eye and reached my hand out from under my comforter and pressed down on the snooze button; bringing the room once again into a calming silence, with nothing to be heard but the cars that drove by my house and the occasional SEPTA bus.

Yesterday had been a nice day, we invited a good amount of people over, we got to see our uncle and cousin after what seemed like forever; and the girls had a pretty good time, too. All in all, it was a great party hands down, I'm sure Ant' would agree with me on that.

"Best, party, ever," I uttered into my pillow with a small smile. I was still partly tired, not only from the skate park, but from partying so hard, plus add the fact that I was kinda sleepy to begin with. I was probably paying for it now. I thought of getting up to make breakfast, but just shrugged it off since it didn't sound like anyone else was awake through the door.

And even if they were, I'm pretty sure Kim would take over for me even though it was my day to cook.

Sighing, I turned over to my left side, stuck my leg out, letting it hang over the bedside. A couple hours more of sleep wouldn't hurt, besides someone will call me if there's something I need to do. With that thought in mind, I rolled back over to my right side and stretched my arm out to get more comfortable on the queen sized bed I was laying on.

That was when my hand brushed up against something, I moved my hand back and touched it; it was soft, slender, almost like ...an arm covered by fabric, right under my comforter. A nightshirt, maybe? I sat up quickly, the comforter falling off of me in the process, and looked over at the other side of my bed.

Blue orbs starred right back at me ...it was a girl, the expression on her face was a mix between shock and surprise, as well as fear.

She blinked.

Then, I blinked. The only thoughts going through my head was who the hell was this, and what was she doing in my room, in my bed of all places?

That's when she opened her mouth. "Kyaaaa~!"

"Ahh!" I jumped back in surprise at her scream and fell off the bed, almost hitting my head into my nightstand. Scrambling, I stood up, turning my attention back to the girl on my bed, she had on a pair of light blue night pants and a long sleeved button up shirt that was the same color. I had no idea what the hell was going on, but I was going to find out either way.

"W-who are you, and w-why are you in my bed?"

I mouth almost fell to the floor ...was she serious? "Excuse me, your bed? Sorry to tell you, but, this is my bed, my room and my house _you're _in!" I spat, gesturing around the room. This girl had some nerve.

She looked around, the look on her face telling me that she just noticed I was telling the truth. She looked familiar; I'm pretty sure I'd seen her before, that hair style, those eyes, and she was obviously Asian. I just couldn't quite put my finger on who she was, though.

"B-but ...I don't understand," she stuttered out, still glancing at all my stuff. "How did I get here, get here?"

"Why don't you tell m-." I stopped in mid-sentence, noticing what she just said, or rather how she said it. "Wait ...did you just, say the same thing twice?" She blinked at me; not answering my question. Why didn't I see it sooner, the hair style, her eye color, her voice. There were like a thousand different thoughts going through my mind at once, but out of all of them there was one thing I had to ask. "Y-your name wouldn't happen to be, Ryugu Rena, by any chance, would it?"

Please say no, please say no.

"Y-yes," she answered, nervously. "How did you know that? Have we met somewhere, before?"

My mind went blink, but only for a moment; how in the world did this happen, I was pretty sure I put up the only object that could even make something like this happen and it in ...my ...closet. "Shit!" I stormed over to the far side of the room the moment the realization hit me, I threw open the closet door and searched in the box in the back where I usually kept the hunted and cursed items. "Rabbit's foot, cursed doll, spell book, voodoo doll," I muttered. I checked off everything in my head, but the monkey paw, it was missing.

And there was only one person I know who'd seek into my things in the middle of the night.

I put the lid back on the box, then pushed it back into the closet. I was beyond pissed, not only did he go into my things without my permission, he did something as stupid as to bring Rena here ...into our world, making things even worse. Closing the closet with a slam, I turned to the dark orange haired girl sitting on my bed, trying to give her my best smile, despite being angry.

"Rena, can you come with me please?" I asked, walking towards the bedroom door.

Rena looked sorta reluctant. "B-but, you still haven't told me where I am." She said, shifting shyly on the bed. "I don't even know who you are."

I sighed. "I'll explain that down stairs. For right now, though, you need to trust me, I'm not gonna hurt you, promise." I looked her in the eyes and held my hand out to her, letting her know that I was being honest; she glance at my hand, then slowly took it, then I gently helped her off the bed. I smiled, her night clothes were really cute. She had quite the taste in style.

I let go of her hand, and turned towards the door. I knew she would follow me out, so I opened it and walked out into the hallway, then walked down the steps. I was going to give that theft, brat brother of mine a piece of my mind.

"Antoine! We need to talk! Now!"

~ ~(Part2)~ ~

Once we got to the bottom of the steps, I let Rena take a seat on the living room couch; which still had a blanket and pillow on it. It was obvious that Ant' slept on the couch late night playing his new _PlayStation 3_, the proof was on the television screen, because one of the new games he had gotten with it was paused and the black controller was left on the coffee table.

So, where was he hiding?

"Antoine! Get your ass in the living room!" I yelled loudly, he was somewhere in the house, so he had to have heard that, if not then he was probably ignoring. "Antoine!"

There was the loud sound of plates clanging together, coming from the kitchen. Then, a few moments later, Antoine came walking out the kitchen hold a bowl of, what looked like, dry _Cinnamon Toast Crunch_ a small smile.

"Morning, bro ...what's up with you?"

"Don't 'what's up with you' me, brat, stop acting innocent," I replied. I walked over to him, crossing my arms over my chest and tapping my foot. "I don't know if you're just stupid, or just really hardheaded, but when I say don't touch my things, I mean it."

"Uh, I didn't take anything."

That had to be the weakest lie I'd ever heard, hands down; Ant' just did not know when to tell the truth sometimes. "You do know that a horrible lie, right," I said, plainly. "First of all, if your going to take someone's stuff, put it back was after your done with it, and second of all." I turned sideways, pointing towards the orange haired clever girl sitting on the couch, starring at us. "Why the hell would you bring someone else here! Are you an idiot?"

"I thought that it'd be cool, I mean, Rika and Hanyu are here, it can't really hurt to add one more person." The dreadlocks styling per-teen said, "and I wanted to surprise Rika ...she been a little, well, homesick lately."

"Really, she's been home sick?" I asked, surprised.

Ant' nodded. "Uh-huh. She told me when we were playing the game after you went to sleep; Rika said she missed her friends, so I thought it would be nice to bring one of them here, that way she wouldn't feel as bad." He explained.

The thought of Rika being that homesick never really occurred to me, before now. But it made sense, the girls had been living with us for a little over a month or so, I'd be feeling the same way if the wish I made to bring them here had been reversed.

I sighed, and shook my head. "Ant', look, I know you had good intentions when you made that wish, but you made our situation five times worse then it was when the girls came here," I said, rubbing my forehead, closing my eyes. I had just waken up, and I was already started to get stressed out. "Rena has no clothes, not even her own toothbrush, plus, we're a little short on money this month as is, not including what we spent for your party yesterday."

"Ah ha ha~ that's the good part about the wish I made!" Antoine laughed. I opened my eyes and saw that he had a huge grin on his face. "I'm not the smartest kid in the world, but I for damn sure ain't stupid, ya know! I added a few things to wish I made to bring her her, plus I made an extra wish for all her clothes and things to be brought here, and appear right in my room. Not only that, but I made the room, like, five times bigger, with another bed and everything! It looks like the room was made for a fuckin' mansion!"

Okay, so maybe it wasn't so bad, but still. "So, let me get this straight, her clothes are here?"

"Yep!"

"And the room's five times bigger?"

Again, he nodded. "Uh-huh~!"

"And, how exactly does that work, if the rooms bigger, won't that make the house look weird from the outside," I asked.

Ant' shook his head, eating some more of his cereal. "You would think that, but nope, I checked. The house looks exactly the same outside," he answered while chewing. "I wished for it to be a magic room, sorta like on _Harry Potter _with the magic tents, it looks small on the outside, but on the inside it's like an entire house."

"That's a pretty good idea." I muttered, Ant' smiled at my words, then I remembered that regardless of how and what Ant' wished for, he still took it without my permission. I glared at him, and spoke in a serious tone. "But, you still stole my stuff. I said you couldn't use the paw for a reason, the same reason I keep everything else that cursed and, or, haunted, locked up in my closet."

"Look, I'm sorry, okay," Ant' uttered. It was hard to tell if he was being sincere or not. But, I'd give him the benefit of the doubt ...this time. "But, I just wanted to cheer Rika up, and bringing a friend here seemed like the best way to do that."

I groaned. He was doing it for her, for Rika, so I couldn't stay mad at him even if I wanted to; that didn't change one simple face, though. "Kim's gonna kill you when she finds out about this ...you know that, right," I stated.

Ant' gave a nodded. "Yeah, I know. But, it's worth it. I mean how often to you get to meet _the_ clever girl, huh," he said as he walked over to me, nudging me with his elbow. "Where did she even appear at anyway? I wished her here, but I didn't really say exactly where in the house."

"She appeared in my room. Damn near scared the hell out of me," I said, glancing over at the dark orange haired girl. It was best to keep the fact that she appeared in my bed to myself, or I'd suffer from endless teasing from Ant'. "As a matter of fact, I'm hiding the paw somewhere else; cause apparently, you can't be trust not to touch my things."

"Aw, come on, I don't take things all the time."

"Oh, really." I shook my head at him, and started counted down the incidents as I said them on my fingers. "How about the time you took my PSP to school, and got it taken away cause you wanted to play it during class. The time you stole and ate almost all of my Halloween candy that one time; oh, and the time you took Kim's-."

"Okay, stop! Jeez~ I get it, alright," Ant' exclaimed. Taking a hand full on dry cereal and popping it into his mouth. "I don't just take things without asking anymore. And, I did ask you. But, you said 'no'. So I just wanted until you were sleeping a little deeper for you to mumble something that was close to yes, cause it didn't sound like a 'no' to me."

That sneaky little demon ...he got me with the oldest trick in the book. Sleep talking, really ...?

Rolling my eyes, I rubbed my temple with my hand, wondering to myself exactly what I was going to do with my little brat of a brother. I was about to say something again, when the voice of our cute loving guest interrupted me.

"Um ...excuse me, but, can you please tell me what's going on here?"

We both turned to her at the same time, she had been sitting on the couch patiently while me and Ant' talked. Rena was nice enough to wait this long, the least I could do was answer her questions; so with that in mind, I walked over and took a seat on the couch next to her, and Antoine sat down to her left, all of us right in front of the paused TV screen.

Nothing was said for a moment, until I spoke first. "So, what do you want to know?" I asked.

Rena looked around at the living room, similar to the way she had done in my room. "W-well, where am I …? One second I'm sleeping in my bed, then I wake up in your room; I don't remember how I got there either."

I took a breath, I was gonna give it to her straight. Something like this isn't really something you can sugar coat. "Okay, here's the deal, you're sorta ...kinda, in America; Philadelphia, PA, actually," I answered, simply.

"Huh! Wait, I'm confused, I was in Hinamizawa before I went to sleep! How can I be in America?"

"Your not the only one who was surprised, Rika was too, maybe even more so then you," I told her.

Her eyes went wide. "R-Rika," she uttered in shock. The way her voice tone was, it made me wonder if there was something going on in Hinamizawa, cause for a second it sounded like hope was mixed in with her shock. "This Rika! Does she have blue hair, purple colored eyes and a cute way of speaking?"

"Yep, that's our Rika, alright," Ant' announced with a smile. "She and Hanyu been living with our family for a little over a month now. We've all been having a bunch of fun, hell, we went to the beach just last week."

"S-so she alive, then." Rena whispered, before sighing in what sounded like relief. "Thank goodness ...we all thought she was dead, or something worse."

I raised an eyebrow. What did she mean, was Rika considered missing. "Hold on, what do you mean you thought Rika was dead ...?"

"...She's been missing for the past month, right before the Watanagashi festival. Even detective Oishi and the police had a hard time finding out where she had gone off to," She answered, sadly. "It was even in the local paper. Satoko was the last one to see her before she disappeared. And, even Irie-sensei's people helped in the search, but we couldn't find anything, it was like she just ...vanished."

I couldn't help the shocked look on my face. "Oh, man. This is, um, news to me." I had no clue that Rika appearing in the real world would send Hinamizawa on a search with a zero chance of success. I always thought that with all the multiple worlds, maybe she and Hanyu were dragged here from the sea of kakera before getting to go to the next world.

But, it would seem I was wrong.

I got up from my seat on the couch, pacing around the coffee table. "Damn it, this is not good. No, this is worse then not good!" I muttered, loudly. How didn't I think of this possibility before?

"What's wrong, Kevin?" Ant' asked me, his voice filled with worry.

"Ant, don't you get it. Did you hear what she said?" I stopped and looked at him, a mix of emotions showing on my face. "They were _searching _for Rika, do you understand? They were looking for her."

"Okay, how's that a bad thing?"

"Ant' ...think for a moment, they were searching for Rika, after we made that wish," I said, just before pointing at Rena. "And what do you think going to happen when they find out Rena's missing, right from under her father's nose, no less."

"Well, their gonna …," the situation seemed to dawn on him at this point. "Oh shit."

"Oh shit, indeed. We fucked up the first time, but at least they didn't know Hanyu was around yet, so they only searched for Rika." I started to pace around again, this time around the couch. "But now Rena's here, their gonna search for her, and keep looking, and the longer they stay here, they longer their going to look until the police give up and they're considered dead! Damn it, they were probably looking for Rika's body as is," I said, before pausing, turning to Rena. "They were looking for Rika's body, right?" I asked.

The young orange haired girl, nodded. "Yes, detective Oishi told us that the possibility of finding her alive was slim, and that was just three weeks after Rika vanished," Rena answered, sadly. "We were all heart broken after that, but I don't think anyone cried more then Satoko."

It was a really bad feeling, to know that my wish had caused them all so much pain. "I'm sorry, really, I am," I said, wholeheartedly. "It was my wish that caused all of this; if I had went with my gut, none of this would have happened."

"What do you mean?" Rena asked, utterly confused. "How did a wish do this, do this?"

I stopped pacing and sat back on my spot on the couch. Sighing, I began with telling about the monkey's paw, what it could do, and the wish I made that brought Rika to the real world; of course, she was sort of confused when I said 'real world' so I had to explain to her everything that I had told the girls the first day they got here.

She didn't believe me at first, but after a little proof, via, the _When They Cry_ mangas I had, she saw that what I was saying was true.

"So, why don't you just use the paw to send us back …?" Rena asked. She was still looking through one of the mangas, it was the one where Keiichi killed Satoko's uncle, and who could blame him, the guy was an asshole just waiting to be put down. "Wouldn't that be easier then looking for another why?"

"Well, yeah, but I don't want to take the risk," I answered. "With the paw, there's a risk that you might not get sent to the right world, well …the world would be the same, it's getting you to the right fragment that bothers me."

"Fragment?"

"Uh," I sucked my teeth, scratching the side of my head. "I'll let Rika explain that one, it's best that you hear it from her instead of me."

Ant' continued playing the game for a little while longer, while me and Rena talked, I answered her many questions as best I could, but for certain ones, I told her it was best to talk to Rika about it. After a while, Ant' cut off the game by using the controller and got up from the couch, he took the disk out and put it in the case, placing it on the television stand.

He came back and plopped down on the couch next to me, as he spoke. "Well, I'm done playing the game for now ...wanna watch _Netflix_?"

"We have _Netflix_?" I asked.

Antoine nodded. "Yeah, Kim brought it yesterday night. I mean, it's the free trial, but still we can watch stuff." He used the controller and clicked on the _Netflix _icon, the screen went black for a moment; then a red screen came on that had the words '_Netflix_' with a loading circle under it, before it disappeared, being replaced with a ton of videos and movies on the TV screen in rows. "So, what do you wanna watch? _The Walking Dead _is on here, oh, and they even have _Enter The Dragon_!" He said in excitement.

I thought on it for a moment. "How about we let Rena choose, she's the guest here, after all?"

"Fine," he sighed, rolling his eyes. He turned to Rena and held out the controller to her. "Um, here."

She took it and looked it, slight confusion written on her face. "Hau~ I-I don't have any idea how this works," Rena said, before turning to me. "What is this, is this?"

Right ...I guess an explanation would be helpful. "That's a wireless controller, how it works is you press on the buttons and move the analog stick, like this." I reached over, moving the analog stick a few times for her, going over different movies. "It's mostly used for games, but when you find a you do want to watch, you press the X button, and to go back, you press the circle button." I finished.

"Oh ...I see, but there are so many things to watch," Rena replied. "How do I choose?"

I shrugged. "Just pick whatever you want, it could be action, romance, even something cute; it's all up to you, Rena-san." I felt that using 'san' was the best thing to do, out of respect. She barely knew me, and in a way I didn't _know_ her personally, I only knew about her.

"O-okay! ...Hau~ I'll look for something cute." Of course I knew she would go for that, this was Rena were talking about here; she's all about cute and cuddly things.

With that being said, the orange haired girl started scrolling through the seemly endless list of movies, after a few minutes she stop at something that not even I knew was on _Netflix_. Small, cute, pastel colored horse with big eyes and cute expressions ...I knew about this show simply because Erika had made plushies of them for her little cousin, very good ones, I might add.

"How about this," Rena asked, turning to me. "Can we watch this, watch this~?"

I gave her a slight nod. Rena smiled and pressed the X button, while I just sat back and watched. It was Ant' who seemed a little reluctant about watching the show. "Really …? _My Little Pony_, seriously!" And that's when the episode one back story ended and the opening began.

_My Little Pony, My Little Pony _

_Ah Aah Aah Aah  
>My Little Pony!<br>I used to wonder what friendship could be  
>My Little Pony! <em>

"Hauu~! So cute! I want to take it home~!" Rena squealed at the TV screen, there would probably be hearts in her eyes right now it this were an anime.

Ant' groaned, slapped his forehead. "Oh God, out of all the things to watch. She had to choose this."

I laughed at him. I was used to watching little kid's shows like this since I took that babysitting job a few years back; _Dora The Explorer_, _Tom & Jerry_, even old classics that never got old like the _Powerpuff Girls_. It was too bad my little bro wasn't, this was really going to _damage _his manliness, at least, that's what he said.

Though, there was one thing on my mind ...what was I gonna do about my big sister.

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><p>That it, the next chapter will be out soon, because I've started it already! I also got an SAO plushie of Kirito, it's awesome! I'm getting Asuna next, cause we all know you can't have Kirito without Asuna, that's like a law! I also got into MLP ...I'm not gonna lie, I've always wondered why people watched a show for little girls, but having little kids around your bound to see all sorts of cartoons; just never thought I'd like MLP, but I do, it's not better then Young Justice, but still, it's great. Remember to review and leave suggestions!<p>

Peace~!


	15. Chapter 14: Truth To A Friend

Hello readers, It's been quite a while, I know, but between school work (It's senior year for me) and watching Magi, I completely lost track of time! So, sorry about that, but I'm back on the roll, in my bag and all of that stuff. So, without further wait, please enjoy the new chapter!

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><p>Chapter 14: Truth To A Friend<p>

"Look, it's been proven more then once that Batman can beat Superman!"

I sat back and shook my head at my little brother; it had been about a ten minutes or so since we started this argument, and even with most of the facts I put out there, Ant' still had a hard time believing the the Man Of Steel could beat Gotham's Caped Crusader.

And, the one person completely ignoring our loud debate, Rena was sitting on the couch, her eyes still glued to the TV as a colorful pink cartoon pony ...Pinkie, I think her name was, sang some song about cupcakes. She been skipping through episodes out of order after the first two episodes of season one, and the one she happened to pick was the one where one of the young ponies went around trying to earn her 'cutie mark'.

_All you have to do is take a cup of flour!_

_Add it to the mix, now just take a little something sweet, not sour!_

_A bit of salt, just a pinch!_

_Baking these treats is such a cinch!_

_Add a teaspoon of vanilla!_

_Add a little more, and you count to four,_

_And you never get your fill of...Cupcakes! _

_So sweet and tasty! _

_Cupcakes! Don't be too hasty!_

_Cupcakes! Cupcakes, cupcakes, Cupcakes! _

"Hau~ so cute! No, more then cute, they're adorable~!" Rena uttered, hugging one of the couch pillows to her chest. I gave a small smile, the way Rena acted normally was cute all on it's own; it was one thing to see it in the manga and anime, but I wasn't gonna lie, the cute mode made the orange haired girl look down right ...well, cute.

"-evin! Hey, bro, are you listening to me!" Ant' shouted in my ear.

I turned to him and blinked, my mind had gone completely off track for a few moments there. "Huh? What is it?"

"Really, you weren't listening! I just gave you, like, ten good reasons how Batman can kick Superman's ass and you flat out ignored me," the per-teen said, a small frown forming on his face. "What's up with you, anyway? You don't usually block me out when we have debates like this."

"Well, sorry. I got distracted," I sighed. "Can you blame me, though, you know Kim's gonna flip-out when she finds out what you did."

Ant' shrugged. "That will happen when it happens." He said unconcerned, before looking over at Rena, and saying in a whisper. "Though, I can see how you'd be distracted ...there is a cute girl in the room, she's around your age and everything." I rolled my eyes at him, I knew exactly what Ant' was getting at, but I chose to ignore it. Much better to do that, then add wood to the fire.

"Whatever. Go ahead and continue your useless debate on how Batman can beat Superman."

"Ah ha ha~ okay, but, you know what I'm getting at, though." And he was right, I did. Ant' leaned up off the armrest and started going through his facts; that at this point I was pretty sure I could counter. "Well, first off, Batman is one of the best tacticians you'd find anywhere, and the worlds best detective, that being said, he could out smart Superman with proper prep time."

"Uh huh ...your sure about that?" I asked, giving him a 'are you serious' expression. "You honestly believe that?"

"Yep, oh, and as a plus, Batman always has kryptonite in his utility belt," Ant' added, smugly, waving his index finger in the air. "So he always has an edge over Superman."

I huffed out a breath, running my hands through my hair. It was time to blow Ant's blue truth into dust with some cold, hard red. "You say all of that, but do you even know how strong Superman really is, or even his limits?" I asked him.

Ant' gave a thoughtful expression, then shook his head. "Uh ...n-no, not as much as you."

"Good, so let me give you five solid reasons way the Man Of Steel will always beat Batman," I cleared my throat and went right into my facts. "First off, you say that Superman can be weaken by kryptonite, and that is true, but the green rock is rarely used as a power off switch. And, it's been proven many time that Superman can power through the effects of kryptonite for a short time, and that's all the time he needs to knock Batman out-."

"He can't do tha-."

"Let me finish, it's only fair, I listen to you," I interrupted him. Ant' opened his mouth to say something, but then closed it and pouted. I smirked. "Now, you said that Batman was the best detective in the world, right? Wrong! Superman is smarter then Bruce by a lot, a whole lot, his brain is faster then the best super computer, he laterally can flip through books and read the entire thing in a matter of seconds; Batman is a good detective, I've give you that. But, you mean to tell me that if Superman read all the books and all the information, that he can't become just as good, if not better, then Batman in detective skills."

Ant' thought on it for a moment, then spoke. "I-I …never thought of it that way before, but Batman has natural talent. Something Superman can't get from just reading a few books."

"Oh, Superman has natural talent. Think about it, X-ray vision, microscopic vision, the ability to see the entire electromagnetic spectrum ...need I go on. If that doesn't count as being a _super _detective, I don't what does."

"Uh~ oh my God, Superman is so damn overpowered it's not even funny!" Ant' exclaimed, slamming his head back on the couch cushion.

"Oh, I know that. And, just to add a few things to prove my point, Superman can become immune to kryptonite by absorbing enough solar radiation, like he did in _All-Star Superman _there's also the fact that even if Batman did have a 'kryptonite ring'." I explained snickering at Ant's annoyed expression, making air quotes. "He would break all the bones in his hand, even if Superman was weakened enough for him to get a few hits off. I mean, you've seen _Superman: Doomsday_, the part were Lex beat on Superman's clone; he had to wear a steel glove just to do any damage to himself, any retorts ...no, I rest my case, then."

"God, this is so unfair, Bat's should have a fair chance," Ant' muttered, loudly.

I chuckled. "Hey, when your facing an alien who constantly holds back when fighting earth's super villains, you can't expect for someone like Batman to win. There's also the fact that Superman and Batman fight enemies on totally different levels," I said. "Superman's to fought villains like Brainiac and Lex, who is considered the worlds smartest man, and won; Bat gets his ass handed to him by an insane clown and his girlfriend on a regular basis, a bad ass clown, but still a clown."

"Alright, I get what your trying to say, jeez~." Ant' pouted, letting out a sigh. "Batman and Superman are on totally different levels when it comes to the bad guys they face ...but, it's possible for him to beat Superman, right?"

"Yeah. He can, with help." I nodded. There was always a possibility, and anything is possible, even in the _DC_ universe. After our little debate, we sat there for the rest of the episode Rena was watching, and though Ant' was kinda hesitate at first; he was watching the show like it was a normal cartoon, which it was. Now that I think about it, maybe the whole reason why I like _MLP _is because it was one of my mom's favorite childhood shows when she was growing up.

Sure, it was remade and what not, but I could see why a child or adult, even, would enjoy it.

A few minutes later, we heard a vehicle pull up to the curb. Antoine hopped off the couch and walked over, looking out of the window. "Kim's here," he announced. From the sound of his voice he really wasn't ready for whatever punishment she was going to throw at him. The car engine switched off, followed by the sound of the car doors opening and shutting, then foot steps could be heard coming up the stairs.

I stood up from my spot, and walked over to the door. I opened it just as Kim was about to ring the doorbell, my eyes falling onto the _Dunkin' Donuts _bag in her hands. Rika and Hanyu were standing behind her on the steps, each of them carrying a few light bags of there own. Hanyu had on a pair of jean shorts and a girly shirt that had a picture of a cartoon rabbit with thick eyelashes; and the words 'Girl's Rule' under it. While, Rika, had on the same green sundress she'd been wearing the first time I met her, and matching colored sandals that seemed to bring out the shade of green on it.

"Well, would you look who decided to finally join the land of the living," Kim said, jokily.

Rika smiled cutely. "Mii~ good morning, sir!"

"G-good morning, Kevin."

"Morning, girls." I greeted them both, before turning my attention back to my sister. "...Uh, Kim, can I talk to you for a second?"

"Sure, just let us lay these bags down in the house first."She walked past me into the house, and the girls both followed; I sighed, closing the door, and began walking down the short hall near the front door. Here it comes ...three, two, one.

"Kevin, who is this?" She asked loudly the second I walked into the living room. Kim was starring at Rena, who was starring right back at her as the cartoon that she was watching still played on the television. I sighed again, here go's nothing.

"That's sorta what I wanted to talk to you about. Late night, while we were sleep, Ant'-."

Unfortunately, though, I was cut off when Rena looked past my sister and spotted the girls. As I suspected, she didn't know who Hanyu was, but her face lit up when she saw Rika standing there, looking just as surprised.

"R-Rika-chan, is that really you?" Rena spoke softly as she stood up.

"Rena ...but, how in the world did you-?"

"Rika-chan~!" The blue haired miko was interrupted as her friend ran over and pulled her into a tight hug, tears falling streaming down her cheeks. Seeing this just showed me how much everyone in Rika's world missed her. "Rika, I so glad you're alive! We all thought you were dead! Thank goodness, you're safe!"

"Mii~ it's nice to see again too, Rena," Rika breathed out, starring up at her friend. Even though she using her cute persona, the expression on her face was oddly adult looking. " ...And what do you mean, you thought I was dead?"

"I think can answer that, actually," I said, standing next to Kim and Hanyu, who looked happy to see another familiar face, even though Rena couldn't see her at all back in Hinamizawa. "Rika, when you came to this world, you disappeared from the other one. So everyone, even the police, started looking for you. They couldn't find you for a while, and afterwards you got classified as dead."

"Dead …everyone thinks I'm dead. I can't believe this." Rika uttered in shock, slowly pulling out of Rena's hug.

"Neither can I, this is really bad, Rika," Hanyu said to the blue haired girl. "What are we gonna do?"

Rika gave a shrug, her voice turning into her real voice as she spoke. "I don't know, Hanyu. But, I'm worried, if we don't all get back home soon. Rena is going to be in the same boat as me." She turned to me, her eyebrow raised. "How did Rena get here, anyway? I thought the monkey paw was the only thing with the power to do something like this?"

"I would like to know that as well," Kim spoke seriously, turning to me, pointing a finger at the orange haired girl. "Why is she _here_? What did you do?"

"Whoa! You're looking at the wrong person," I exclaimed with my hands raised in front of me. "Ant' did this, not me!"

Kim frowned, and turned her attention to Antoine; my brother seemed to sank under her gaze. "Ant', come in the kitchen, please." She said in a calm voice, it was more of an order then a suggestion, and that one of the ways anyone who knew my sister could tell she was very, very, upset.

"But, Kim-."

"Now! I'm not giving you a choice!" Kim shouted; she walked, or rather stumped over to Ant', grabbed him by the arm and started dragging him into the kitchen.

I knew what was coming next, hell I'd been on the receiving end of one of Kim's upset moods. I was just happy it wasn't me this time. I worried Ant' that this was coming; he made a chose so now it was time to face the consequences.

"Auau~ is he going to be okay," Hanyu asked, a worried look on her face. "Your sister seems really upset."

"Um ...yeah, he should be just fine. I'm sure that-."

"What the hell is wrong with you! Do you think at all, do you think we have all the space in the world to keep bringing people into our house! Do I look like I'm made out of money to you?" Kim's enraged shouting came from the kitchen.

I sucked my teeth ...this was going to take a while. "So~ ...um, anyone up for a movie?"

**~ ~(Part2)~ ~**

It had been about five minutes since we started watching the television, the movie we decided to watch, wasn't really much of a movie, but a really long show that lasted at least forty minutes an episode. It was called _Dexter_; I'd heard about it from David a few times and always thought it was your everyday _CSI: Miami _cop show, but boy was I wrong, the main character, Dexter, was someone I had never come across in a TV series.

A cereal killer_, _that kills other cereal killers and only killers. It was like a freaking lion hunting a lion ...or a witch hunting other witches, though, there was Battler's little sister.

Anyway, not only was it good, but Rika really seemed to be interested in it, more so then the rest of us. Which was sort of a surprise. The child miko, Furude Rika, likes shows like this? Who would've guess.

"_-Oh, trust me, I defiantly understand,_" Dexter responded to the man tied up against the wall. "_But children I could never do that, not like you. Never, ever, kids._" He then pulled out a needle, and injected it into the guys neck with no hesitation, muttering. "_I have standards._"

The killing scene came next, with the man being tied up to a table, nude, nothing but tape covering him. I couldn't help but nod at that, a bad guy getting what he deserves from another, supposed, bad guy. What could be more awesome in a show.

"Auau~ d-don't you think this is a l-little ...much?"

"Not really, I mean the guys getting what he deserves," I answered, shrugging. "Besides, he killed kids, I say no mercy."

"Mii~ I agree with Kevin on this one," Rika added, cutely, pumping her little fist in the air. "Such crimes call for punishment! Nipaa~!"

"Hau! You're so cute, Rika-chan!" Rena said, hugging the blue haired miko gently from her spot on the couch. "I've missed you so much. I never letting you out of my sight again ...though, I do have a question," she paused, letting go of Rika, then pointed to Hanyu. "Who's that?"

"Oh, this is Hanyu, she's a relative of mine," Rika answered, putting a hand on the shy goddess's head. "I guess you could say she's my cousin."

"C-cousin? Since when did you have a cousin? Mion never said anything about this."

"It's a long story." Rika turned to the horned goddess, smiling as she spoke to her. "Mii~ don't be shy, Hanyu, say hi."

Hanyu nodded, meekly. "Auau~ it's nice to finally meet you, R-Rena-san. Rika's told me much about you." Sure, what she said was a slight lie, but I wasn't going to pester her about it. The girls would tell Rena the truth about their selves when they were ready.

"Hau~ You both are defiantly related, I can see the resemblance. All the way down to the cuteness."

"T-thank you for the compliment, Rena-san."

A few moments later, Kim and Antoine came walking out of the kitchen, a small frown on my little brother's face. Kim walked over to the love seat, and sat down on it with a sigh, while Ant' stomped up stairs, most likely to his room for the time being, if the door slamming was any indication.

"Uh ...what am I going to do with that boy?" Kim sighed deeply, closing her eyes, messaging the bridge of her nose with her thumb and index finger. After a few seconds of this, she looked up at Rena. "You're name's ..Rena, right?"

"Um, yes."

"Look, Rena, I'm really sorry about all of this," my older sister apologized. She must have felt guilty for Ant's stupid decision. "My little brother, he doesn't think sometimes. But, I promise, we'll find a way to get you three home as fast as we can."

"I-it's alright," Rena replied back. "There's no need to apologize. I'm just happy to see that Rika is safe and sound, if anything, I should be thanking you for keeping her with you."

"Well, if that's the case, you'd better think Kevin, too; he is the one who convinced my to keep them here. Hell, he watches them most of the time. I'm usually working."

"So about Ant', what's up with him?" I asked.

Kim sighed again. "He's grounded for two weeks. No games, no television and no computer. He can still go outside though, so, yeah." She answered, before adding with a groan. "I swear, that boy is the only one who could have a birthday one day, and get grounded the next. I really wish he'd grow up and be more responsible."

"Your not the only one, believe me," I agreed.

"Anyway, I gonna go have a drink. Got the real urge to down a glass of wine right now," Kim said. She stood up and walked into the kitchen. I was about to say something to the girls, and Rena, when she poked her head back out in the entry way. "Oh, and Ant' left this in the kitchen. Put it up somewhere more secure this time, please." She then tossed out monkey paw, which happened to land right in Rena's lap; the orange haired girl let out a small yelp and I picked the paw up, glaring over at my sister.

"Kim!"

"My bad! Sorry, Rena!" Then she was right back in the kitchen, making noise as she opened the cabinet full of glasses.

I sighed. Standing up, I looked down at the paw, then over at the three girls still on the couch. "This thing is causing a lot of trouble then it's worth. Wish I never got the damn thing."

"Mii~ it's not that bad," Rika said, smiling. "It's fun here, and we can finally get a break from having to fight fate constantly. It gets tiring after a while."

Hanyu nodded, sadly. "She's right, it's nice to get a break after such a long time."

"Um ...Rika, can I ask you something," Rena asked, glancing over at the two members of the Furude family.

"Of course, sir, ask away~!"

"Well, Kevin-san told me that in this world, we're all considered anime characters to people here. He showed me some of the mangas, and, well ...was there something going on in Hinamizawa that our friends don't know about. You always seemed to have this sad look on your face when no one was looking, is there something wrong at all, anything ...?"

Rika didn't say anything at first. Maybe, showing Rena those mangas from a little later in the series was a bad idea, but those were the ones that Ant' picked out ...so-.

"Rena, there's a lot of things about me that you don't know. I've kept it to myself for some long, and whenever I did say something, no one believed me. It never made a difference; so, it's hard to talk about, but ...just promise me we'll still be friends. Then, I'll tell you," Rika said in her true voice, rather then her little kid persona.

Rena looked concerned, but nodded nonetheless. "Rika, we'll always be friends, no matter what you tell me. Why wouldn't we be?"

"Rena ...I'm different from other people; me and Hanyu both, we're …," Rika sighed, glancing over at Hanyu, who nodded back at her. Looking back over at Rena, she spoke again. "We're not as ...young as we seem, for a long time, since my every first life, we've been fighting against fate, but we never seemed to get any closer to victory-."

And so, Rika went on to tell Rena about her life, and the continuous struggle through death and hardships, endless tragedy and tragedy. I couldn't help but feel sort of happy for her, finally, she was opening up to one of her friends about her own life. Rena listened, soaking in every word spoken, and was even more surprised, shocked more so, that Hanyu was the real village deity, Oyashiro.

As Rika talked, and Hanyu, who joined in afterward. I started up the stairs to put up the monkey paw, this thing had been way more trouble then it's worth, but in the event that I do need it sooner or later, I'll hide it somewhere no one, not even Ant', knows about.

I just hope Rena takes everything that Rika is telling her well. If I remember correctly, Rika never told anyone _that_ much by the end of the series, but; I had the feeling that Rena could handle it, she was understanding, someone a friend could count on and trust. All she needed was time.

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><p>Done, so what did you think, please review and leave suggestions. Also, <strong>bhark3<strong>, that's a nice suggestion, never thought of using the Gurren Lagann rap libera me from hell like that, I even have it on my phone! The animes so awesome, Kamina rules! So thanks for that, if there are anymore ideas, please don't hesitant to comment.

Peace~!


	16. Chapter 15: Rika's New Word Of The Day

What up, readers! I'm back with another exciting installment to this great and wonderful story! Haven't updated in a good while, but hey, I just found out that Fallout New Vegas is the shit, never played the games, but always wanted to, so I took the chance and now I'm hooked on it. ...Don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing, though. Anyway, enjoy!

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><p>Chapter 15: Rika's New Word Of The Day<p>

It has been about a week and a half since Rena had ended up here, and as hectic as things had been the first few couple days; things had calmed down a lot. Rena, now shared my little brother's bedroom with Rika and Hanyu, just like he had intended.

Speaking of Ant', he still had half a week to go before he was no longer grounded, so rather then playing the game, he sat around the house reading my _Scott Pilgrim _graphic novels from my book collection. He was a fast reader when it came to comic books, so it took him only a short amount of time to get to _Scott Pilgrim & The Infinite Sadness_, which is the one he was reading now.

"Mii~ Kevin, you should really play this game! It's a lot of fun!" Rika said, turning from the TV screen, smiling at me. She had on a pair of Sony headphones on her head, so that she could interact with other gamers online as she played. The one thing I loved about the _PlayStation 3 _was the free internet.

I glanced up at her from my book. "I've played that game over a hundred times already over my friend's house. I'm not missing anything."

"Okay then, if you say so~!"

I gave a small smile, waving my hand in a shooing motion, and she went back to playing the game. I started reading the large book in my hands again, I'd gotten it from the library this morning; it was something on the history of supernatural charms and cursed objects, so I though my it could give me a clue on if the monkey paw's spells could be reversed somehow, but so far, I've read nothing except what was already known about it.

I sighed. This was gonna be a problem, I had to find a way to send the girls home, and fast. But, my research just lead me to dead end after dead end. Not only that, but today was a perfect Wednesday afternoon, and I was stuck in the house.

...Well, at least Hanyu and Rena weren't; I'm pretty sure they were having a great time.

"Hey," Antoine said suddenly, looking up from the graphic novel he was reading. "Where did Hanyu and Rena go, anyway?"

I couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at him. "They've been gone for almost an hour, and you're just asking now." I stated, shaking my head. "But, if you wanna know, they went with Erika to the Franklin Mills mall."

"Really, what for?"

I shrugged. "No idea, something about needing new fabric and wanting to take Rena's measurements afterward." I answered, before to myself chuckling. "You know how she is when she finds someone cute or good looking, Erika just has to have them model in those cosplay outfits of her's. And, we all know Hanyu's bad at saying no to her; Rena just got dragged into it."

"True dat! Though, I have to wonder," Ant' said in thought. "How do you think Hanyu would look in cat cosplay? That there, is something I'd give a limb to see."

"I'm sure you could ask Hanyu if she'd wear one for you," Rika joked, not looking away from her game. "If not, there's always club games; it could be a punishment if she losses."

"Ah ha ha~ and embarrass her beyond belief …? I think I'll pass, she's too sweet a girl for that," Ant' laughed.

After Ant' said that, a moment later a felt something crawl onto my lap; I lifted my book to get a better view, seeing that it was my favorite house cat, Bern. I smiled scratched under the kitten's chin, getting a soft purring out of her in response.

"Well, hey there, girl, who's a good kitty." Bern, being a cat, did what most cats do. She continued purring, and leaned into my touch as I laid the huge library book down on the coffee table and stroked the blueish fur on her head with my other hand.

Bernkastel was a one of the most well behaved cats an owner could ask for, and unlike other cats in their kitten months, she didn't run around the house and scratch up couch cushions and things like that. She was calm, always observant, curious too, but cautious.

During Rena first day in our home, Bern didn't even let the cute loving girl touch her, hissing at her whenever she tried; I told Rena that it was better to let Bern get used to her, and that going into cute mode and hugging the cat would only cause her to, most likely, end up with some every painful scratch marks.

But, as the days past, Bern got used to Rena being around and let her pet her a few times. Of course, Bern was still hesitant around her; mostly because of the time a few days ago when Rena tried to hug the cat and spooked her, giving Rena a few scratches for it.

The one thing we all learned about Bern is that it's best to give the kitten her personal space, and let her come to you. I had to learn that the hard way, too.

"_**Headshot!**_" Was announced through the TV stereo, as Rika fired off her gun at some unluckily player in the game. She was playing one of the four games Ant' had gotten for his birthday, the one she was on now on his profile being _Call Of Duty: Black Ops 2_. The blue haired miko grinned as she reloaded her gun in game and ran behind a brick wall, taking cover from one of the other online players. Rika waited for a moment, then changed her M16 to a SPAS-12 shotgun and ran out, firing three shots off, killing the other player. "_**Killstreak!**_"

"Mii~ you should try harder, sirs," Rika spoke, shooting at yet another player, but missing as he ran for cover. "If you don't, my team will end up winning."

"_Damn, dude, you're getting you're ass handed to you by a little kid!_" A mans voice spoke. "_I can't believe you let her steal your Care Package from you!_"

Another player spoke, an older teen this time from the sound of the voice. "_Fuck you, man! I'm just having an off day, I haven't played this game in a while._"

"_That sounds like an excuse to me,_" a deeper voiced player said.

"_Yep, excuses for getting sprayed down by a ten-year-old._"

"Actually, I'm twelve, sir," Rika said. Continuing the game as she talked, tossing a grenade at a player standing in a doorway. "And, maybe Mr. 'DarkLord2091' has to work."

"_Yes! Exactly, thank you!_" The man exclaimed over the online chat. "_See, even the little girl understands! Unlike you lazy asses who sit around playing COD all day, I actually do shit in life!_"

"_Da fucks that suppose to mean, dawg, I work too!_" Another voice joined in.

"_Yeah ...I'm betting at Burger King, right?_"

"_Ah ha ha! May I take you're order!_"

"_You know what, fuck all ya'll bitch-ass muthafuckas!_"

Me and Ant' couldn't help but burst out laughing; the one thing about online chats were funny times like this. Between the trolls, rage quitters, and racists, it was always nice to have laugh at other peoples ignorance. As we laughed, Bern hopped off my lap and walked over to the window, hopped on the sill, and laid down, basking in the sunlight as the breeze rolled in like she always did.

Rika took the headset off her head, and turned to Ant'. "Do people always argue like this while playing the game?" She asked in her adult persona, her eyebrow raised.

Ant' shrugged. "More or less, it's funnier when you have good trolls involved, though."

"Trolls …?"

"It's people who purposely pick fights over the internet, or plain old game chats. They annoy the hell out of people," the dreadlocks styling per-teen explained. "They don't bother me, though, I honestly find them funny."

"That's until you're on the reserving end of the trolling," I added, plainly. I got trolled once, and it wasn't fun, at all. I'm not gonna lie, though, I laugh when it happens to other people.

"I see," the blue haired miko said, thoughtfully. Rika back at the TV screen, put the headset back on her head, and continued playing the game as she spoke. "Oh, and one more thing, Kevin."

"Yerp?"

"What's that word you used before, the one about getting owned or something?"

"You mean getting pwned?"

Rika nodded, smirking. "Yes, that's the one. I think I just came up with a new word, would you like to hear it?" She asked.

I shrugged, then nodded. "Sure, what's the word?"

On the TV screen, Rika made her character run after one of the other players, shooting at him. Stopping, the other player opened fire on Rika, who ran for cover behind a burnt up truck. She then threw a flash bang grenade over the top of the truck, and waited until it went off before running out as the player fired in a random direction and knifed him, all the while, smiling and exclaimed cutely into the mic in her little miko persona. "Niipwned~!"

I busted out laughing, and Ant' soon followed. Out of all the words I was expecting to hear from her, that was not one of them.

"Ah ha ha~ nice one, Rika, nice one," Antoine laughing.

"Yeah, great word fusion, I've never heard that one before," I chuckled.

Rika gave a big smile. "Mii~ I'm glad you like it, sirs, I thought of it yesterday." She informed, glancing at us, then turning her attention back to the television screen.

Everything got quiet for a few minutes, the only sound being the TV and the turning pages of my book that I'd started reading again. That was until Ant' said suddenly. "So ...is anyone else hungry, or is it just me?"

Now that I think about it, I am sorta hungry, and we had breakfast a while ago. I could make us something real quick. "I guess could make us something," I said, bending the corner of the page of the book, putting it on the coffee table once more.

"What did you have in mind?" Ant' asked.

I thought on it. "How about ...grilled cheese and tomato soup, maybe?"

"Okay ...I guess I'll eat that."

"Mii~ I would like some as well," Rika chimed in.

I got up, and turned to her, smiling. "Spicy soup, then?"

The blue haired miko nodded at me as the team death match ended, the results showing up on the screen. "Yep, spicy soup, but a little hotter this time."

I chuckled. Unlike Hanyu, who complained about my grandma's spicy Jamaican tomato soup recipe being too hot; Rika the only one ever to say that it wasn't hot enough, girl seemed like she could eat lava if she wanted to. "Alright, give me about fifteen minutes, guys," I turned and started towards the kitchen.

The rest of the day went by like this, me reading, half the time. Ant' doing whatever he could to not think about the game or computer; then afterward we all sat back and watched _The Walking Dead_ for a few hours from the beginning, since Rika had never seen it before. It was a very calm and peaceful day, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

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><p>And that's a wrap for this chapter, remember to review and leave suggestions! This was more of a filler chapter then anything else, it also marks the end of season one, and trust me when I say two will be loads of fun! So, until next time!<p>

Peace-out~!


	17. Chapter 16: Games Goddess Play

So, it's been a while, I know. I'm back now and better then ever, I'm do with exams and all that stuff. In other news, I'm finally graduating! Schools done, think God, until collage at least. So with time to spare I can finally get back to writing and doing what I love. Enjoy!

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><p>Chapter 16: Games Goddess Play<p>

The days seemed to be getting hotter and hotter as it got closer to August; Rena had been here for a few weeks now, taking the sudden change in her life much easier then I had thought she would. She was in a different world, in a different country. If it had been me I would have been scared to death. But she was doing just fine adjusting, and part of that was thanks to Rika and Hanyu for helping her out in understanding things.

Today it was July, twenty-sixth. It was hot outside, but thanks to the breeze that was blowing it felt a lot cooler. I was sitting on the living room couch next to the others, watching Ant' play some game he downloaded onto his PS3. It was some indie side-stroller where you had to jump at just the right time or you died, Ant' wasn't exactly what you'd call a pro gamer, but he was doing way better then I had. I gave up after I lost a good ten times in a row.

"Come on, come on. Don't die!" Antoine muttered at the screen as the game's speed suddenly picked up. Too bad his wish wasn't granted because he took one wrong leap and jumped right into a gap that was in the platform.

The words 'Game Over' appeared on the screen, that having been Ant's last life.

He let out a growl, slamming the controller on the couch cushion next to him. "Damn it!"

"I thought you said that you were better then me at this game," I said, as a small smile made it's way onto my face. "From the looks of things I'm still, like, fifteen points ahead. Even Rena got a higher score."

"Oh ...shut up, it's a stupid game, anyway," Antoine muttered. He got off the couch and went over to the television set, looking through his other game. "I'm playing _Super Street Fighter 4_, this game was a total waste of time."

"Hau~ I think that you did really well, Antoine, so don't feel bad, okay," Rena said, smiling at him.

Ant' sucked his teeth at her and got up off the couch to change the game. "Yeah, yeah. Whatever."

I shook my head at him, with a grin. If I had been the one that lost, I knew for a fact that Ant' would've been rubbing his victory in my face. He was always like this when playing any type of game, rather it be board games, or video games. He's a really sore loser. I just hope he grows out of it, sometime soon if he could help it.

"M-maybe, we should play on two players," Hanyu said, shyly. "I mean if Antoine wants to, that is."

Ant shrugged. "Sure, I don't mind playing any of you, just don't be mad when you get your butt kicked," he said playfully.

I grinned. "You know that's the same thing you said about the last game we played, and you know how that ended," I pointed out.

Ant' took the second controller from off top on the television, then walked back over and sat down in his spot on the couch. "It will be different this time. I'm not losing to either of you," he said, before turning to Rena, holding the controller out to her. "Especially not you, I'll have revenge for my defeat!" He finished, sticking his tongue out at her.

Rena giggled, and rather then taking the controller, she pulled Ant' into a hug out of no where, the side of his head resting on her chest. "Hau~ you are just so cute when your worked up! I wish I had a cute younger brother, too!"

"H-hey, I'm not cute. Do I look like a girl to you?" Ant' muttered. Rena just continued giggling. From the sound of his voice I could tell he was embarrassed from being caught off guard by Rena's hug, he reacted the same way when Erika had hugged him a few times as well.

While the two of them joked around, I turned my attention to Rika. She was sitting in the loveseat with her feet kicked up on a footrest, she'd been quiet for a while, just reading some book I was pretty sure she got from my bookshelf. And surprisingly enough the book that she was reading was one of my favorites, _Carrie _by Stephen King, a very nice choice.

"Rika, we're about to play _Street Fighter_, you wanna join us?" I asked her.

The blue haired miko glanced up from her page, and shook her head. "Mii~ no thanks, I'm just fine, sir." Rika answered before she went back to her reading. "This book is really interesting. The author deserves a pat on the head for writing such good stories."

"Trust me, Rika, the author's gotten way more then just a pat on the head," I said, smiling at her. "I pretty sure _Stephen King _has awards lined up on his shelf. His books aren't just good, they're one of a kind. Before he did it, I can say for a fact that I've never heard of an author who wrote a book on a killer clown monster thing."

"You're talking about _It_, right?" Ant asked, finally pulling himself out of Rena's hug. The girl was strong I'd give her that, and it looked like she never lifted a weight in her life, even 'off screen' during the times we couldn't see during the anime. Arm wrestling was on of those things she was a natural at, I know because I've tried, sure she'd almost lose in the beginning, but let something cute happen like a stuffed toy commercial pop up on the TV and my hand would be down before I even realized what happened.

Cute mode was no joke. I was just happy we'd never have to see 'Killer Mode'.

Now that I thought about it, though. Rika had been in the mood to read for the past week or so, and she was very good at it, the last book she read wasn't small by any means, and took her about three days to finish. What was it that she read, again …?

I think it was _Pet Cemetery._

That also brought up another question. Could Rika always read English, or did the paw have something to do with it.

"Hey, Rika, do you mind if I ask you something?" I asked suddenly, turning my attention away from the television screen.

Rika looked up at me and shook her head. "What is it, Kevin?"

"Could you always read English this good, or was it when you were brought here?"

The blue haired girl gave a thoughtful expression. I guess that question never occurred to her. "Well ...now that I think about it, I did know a little English before. Ms. Chie taught us to speak it in school, but I was never as good at it as I am now. I don't even have a accent anymore, either."

Yep, just as I thought, the paw did have something to do with it. But damn, talk about convenient. The monkey paw has more power then I thought. Where the hell did grandma get this stuff …?

"I see," that was all I said before turning back to the game; Rika went back to reading and I wanted patently for my turn to challenge whoever won this fight.

Speaking of the game, they were still in the middle of picking characters. Ant' did just as I thought and picked Ryu, most likely so he could spam the hell out of his moves. It took Rena a few seconds to decide, but she ended up choosing Cammy, a wise choice.

Then the game began.

**~ ~(XXX)~ ~**

"**Shoryuken! Shoryuken! Shoryuken!**"

I couldn't help but shake my head as I watched the game between Ant' and Rena play out. Like I said before, my little brother was gonna spam Ryu's moves, and that is exactly what he was doing right now. Just now, Ant' made Ryu hit Cammy with a three combo Shoryuken, that was something that you only saw in tournaments and somehow he was doing it, I had the feeling that Kim taught him to do that, because she was the only one in the house that could pull it off.

Cammy health was now in the red; Rena mashed away at the buttons almost hitting Ant' with Cammy ultra combo, but he blocked it before it could do any damage.

"Hau~ this isn't fair! You're not letting me do anything, do anything!" Rena exclaimed in frustration, puffing out her cheeks.

"Ah ha ha! Sorry, but I'm not suppose to go easy on you," Ant' said, as he made Ryu jump over Cammy, who was trying to hit him with sweep kick. "I'm ending this!"

Ryu moved forward and hit Cammy heavy hit, knocking her into a daze, then Ant' pressed the combo buttons for what had to be the fourth time. "**Metsu,**" Ryu hit Cammy in the stomach, then when she hunched over gave her a solid uppercut to the chin, but with added force, sending her flying into the air. "**Shoryuken!**"

"**Noo ...noo ...no!**" And then came the echoing voice of defeat.

"**K.O!**"

Ant' hopped off the couch, pumping his controller hand into the air and doing a happy dance. "Yes! Victory! Ha ha ha! I won, I won," he sang as he turned to a very upset looking Rena. "You lost, I won! Fuckin'-A!"

"Auau~ A-Antoine, you're being mean," Hanyu said, shyly. "Rena tried her best, you shouldn't tease her like that."

I nodded. "Yeah, Ant', like Hanyu said, stop being an asshole," I added.

"N-now I didn't say that."

"But you were thinking it," I pointed out. Hanyu opened her mouth to say something, but then closed it. She had a small bit of red on her cheeks, which lead me to believe that she actually was thinking something along those lines, who would've thought. This world must be getting to her, I'm not sure if that's a bad thing or not.

Ants' smiled faded a bit, but not completely, as he held up the second controller. "So who else is up for a digital ass kicking," the dreadlocks styling boy asked, waving the controller around. "Anyone? No takers?"

I rolled my eyes at him, about to take the controller from his hand. But a pale hand reached out and beat me to it. It was Hanyu, one of the last people I expected to take up Antoine's challenge.

"Auau~ I'll go up against you, Antoine," the horned goddess said with surprising determination, taking up the controller. "P-please don't go easy on me ...I-I want you to give it your all!"

"You sure about that, I mean I won't want to be '_mean_' or anything," Ant' said, doing air quotes. Even though his voice was slightly sarcastic, I had the feeling he really did meant what he said.

Hanyu shook her head. "No, I want you to fight me the same way you fought Rena-san."

"Okay, then."

"I wouldn't underestimate Hanyu if I were you." Rika announced to Ant', bending the corner of the page and closing her book. "She's been practicing with almost every video game you have ...at least, the ones that don't give her nightmares."

"Oh really," Antoine said in amusement, looking over at the purple haired girl. "I guess we will have to see how far you've come as a gamer, young grasshopper."

And with that being said, the game went right to the character select screen at the press of a button. Ant' was best at playing with characters that used Ryu's style of fighting, rather it was Sakura or Ken, it made little difference, but for some reason he ended up choosing Akuma of all fighters. As for Hanyu, she choose the one character she always picked whenever we played a two player match in _Street Fighter_, Rose.

Now, I liked Rose's character, I thought she was fine. But she wasn't my first choice, to be honest she wasn't even my second choice. I had to give my props to Hanyu, though. If there was anyone in this house that could fight good with the violet haired fortune teller, it was her.

Ant' then choose the fighting area.

"**Rundown back alley! Fists will fly at this location!**" The game announcer said as the picture of the two characters popped up on both sides of the screen.

"I hope your ready to lose, Hanyu-dear," Ant' said, smirking at the horned girl. "I will be sure to be as gentle as possible okay."

Hanyu blushed a little bit, but that did nothing to her determination. "Auau~ I have no intention of losing, Ant'."

"Oh ho~ looks like we're bring out nick names now~!" Antoine teased. "You're more serious then I thought, honey-bunch," he turned his attention back to the television screen just as the fight was about to start, grinning. "Don't disappoint me!"

"Auu~ I-I don't plan to," Hanyu stuttered out.

"**Who will emerge as champion! Fight!**"

~ ~ (XXXX)~ ~

"Come on, Hanyu! You can win this thing," I said, leaning up on the edge of my seat. "Just give it a bit more. Ants' not unbeatable."

The match between my little brother and Hanyu was pretty close, there were three rounds, Ant' won two matches and surprisingly enough, so did Hanyu. Now they were at the last round that would decide who would win the victory out of the two. It was anyone's game.

Hanyu was what you'd call a cautious player, she attacked when she had the chance and guarded against most attacks to save HP. Antoine on the other hand was an offensive player; he didn't guard much and that was usually what lead to his downfall whenever we played any fighting games like _Tekken _or _Dead Or Alive_.

Both of them were polar opposites when it came to styles of playing, but just by looking at the expressions on their faces I could tell that while this was to win, they were both having a fun time with it.

"Wow, you're better then I thought, Hanyu. Rika was right not to underestimate you, I'm glad I didn't," Ant' uttered, not taking his eyes off the TV. "A little bit of practice and you could entire a tournament."

Hanyu glanced over at him and gave a shy smile, blushes slightly at his words. "Auau~ you really think so?"

"Yep, in the words of Drake, no lie."

"T-thank you, Antoine, that's nice of you to say."

"Also, don't take your eyes off the television, that's an easy way to lose," he reminded her.

Hanyu's eyes quickly flickered back to the TV screen. "R-right!"

"**Fight!**"

The first thing Ant' did was make Akuma jump back and fire a Hadouken at Rose, but Hanyu guarded against it and returned a energy attack of her own.

"**Soul Spark!**"

"**Hadouken!**"

Both moves canceled each other out, disappearing the second the energy attacks made contact. Antoine didn't waste any time jumping forward and going into an all out attack. Hanyu kept her guard up, trying her best not to get grappled by the demon warrior. She jumped back just as Akuma jumped forward and hit her with a Shoryuken while she was still in midair. Hanyu went right back to guarding once her character got up off the floor and the raging demon's attack commenced all over again.

"Hanyu, your gonna have to attack sooner or later or you're going to lose," I informed her.

"Auu~ a-are you sure." She stuttered out, still holding down the block button.

I nodded. "Yeah, just trust me on this, next time you get a opening. Take it."

Ant' continued to make Akuma hit Rose with an endless amount of combos, keeping her trapped in the corner. Then out of nowhere he jumped into the air, leg extend, and spun around rapidly. "**Tatsumaki Zankukyaku!**"

"Now, Hanyu, hit him with something!"

Once Akuma landed, Hanyu made Rose grapple him and throw him back. It was just enough for an attack, Akuma got up only to be hit by a ball of pure energy. "**Soul Spark!**" The attack didn't knock Akuma down but it brought Hanyu time to jump Rose forward and start giving the demon a beating. As I've said before, Ants' defensive skills sucked, and it was only worse now that he choose to fight with Akuma.

The thing with his character is that while he can deal out strong attacks and end a fight fast. There was a downside to that, Akuma couldn't take a punch and lost more life then, let's say, Ryu. And with Hanyu always on guard until just the right moment to strike, Akuma couldn't get couldn't get many clean hits on her character.

"Hanyu's doing better then I expected." Rika voiced in her mature persona over the sound effects of the game, I looked over, noticing that she had her full attention on the TV. "Before, she would just click random buttons and hope for the best."

"I think almost everyone started off doing that at first, I know I did," I said.

"Hau~ is that why I lost, because I was pressing random buttons?" Rena asked.

I gave a nod. "Yep, don't worry, though. You'll get better, you have to keep at it, is all."

"B-but it's so hard to play this game, this game."

"Hey, I never said it would be easy."

We turned back to the television the moment Hanyu had Antoine nearly backed into a corner. He went to make Akuma hit here with yet another Hadouken, but Rose leaped over the attack, ending up right behind him. Ant' character only had a little bit of life left, and so did Hanyu's; the thing was that while they were both at the point where one ultra combo would mean a instant knock out. Such a bad time for Ant' to leave himself wide open.

The ultra combo sound effect came as Rose struck a pose with her magic scarf thrown back. "**Try this on for size,**" she whipped the scarf forward, wrapping it around Akuma's wrist. "**Ultra Illusion Spark!**" Then came the high voltage of magic electricity, ending the match for good.

"**K.O!**"

"**Ugghh!**" Akuma fell in slow motion, before hitting the ground with a heavy thud.

"**Rose wins!**" The announcer exclaimed as red words saying the same thing appeared on the screen.

Hanyu hopped up off the couch, a wide on her face as she cheered loudly, throwing her hands up in the air. "Yes! I won! I won!" She exclaimed, before turning to the blue haired miko standing up in front of the loveseat. "Auau~ Rika, you saw, right? You saw me win? All that practice payed off!"

"Mii~ nicely done, Hanyu." Rika congratulated her, walking over to her and patting her on the head. It was cute, but at the same time, it was kinda funny because Hanyu was taller then her by almost two inches. "I knew you could do it! Niipaa~!"

"Yeah, nice playing, girl! You won like a true gamer," I said, holding my hand up. She smiled and high-fived me.

"Hau~ it was a great game, I really enjoyed watching you both," Rena added.

I smiled. Then looked over at Antoine, who had a small pout on his face, muttering something under his breathe. "Yo, lil' bro, don't you have something you want to say to the _winner _of the match. Come on now, be a good sport."

"Okay, jeez." Ant' tossed the controller onto the couch cushion, and turned to the purple haired girl. "Well, I don't want to seem like an asshole who won't give a person their props when it's do ...so, nice job, Hanyu," he said, holding his fist out for a bump, smiling. "You really gave me a run for my money, pound it."

Hanyu smiled, shyly. "T-thank you. You played a good game as well. It could have gone either way." She replied, giving him a fist-bump.

"Yeah, but it didn't and that's why you won." Ant' said, before looking at Rena giving her a sheepish grin. "And, sorry about all that stuff from earlier, I mean, I beat you. But I was sorta being a dick about it."

"It's okay, there's no problem being a little, um ...overly competitive."

"So now that we have a winner in this game," I spoke as I stood up from my spot on the couch, turning to the other four. "How about we go out for ice cream. Ants' treat."

"Wait a minute, what the hell do you mean my treat?" Ant' said, sending me one of his half glares.

I grinned and ruffled his dreadlocks, which didn't do much since they still looked the same as always. "you didn't forget, did ya? Kim used my allowance money last month for Rika and Hanyu, and you do still have your birthday money from uncle, right?"

"Well ...yeah, I do."

"Then you should have enough to treat us to some ice cream~!" I said, a big grin plastered on my face. "Besides, Hanyu did beat you. In _Street Fighter _of all things, I think she deserves it."

"God, this is so stupid. Fine! I'll buy the fuckin' ice cream, ya happy?" Ant' uttered under his breath. He started walking towards the stairs, then turned around to us before he walked up the first step. "But you own me big for this, Kev', I mean it."

I waved my hand dismissively at him. "Sure thing, Ant'. I'll try to remember that," I said. Even though I knew for a fact that he would bring this up some time in the future when he wanted something from me.

Ant' huffed with a frown, then walked up the steps to get his sneakers from his room. We had all been dressed since earlier today, but all ours shoes were down stairs by the door, well everyone except Ants', anyway.

While I sat on the couch putting on my black and red Nike sneakers. I couldn't help but think that about how great things were going, there was nothing that could ruin this summer for me, simply because everything was going way better then I expected it to.

"Um, Kevin?"

At the sound of Rena's voice, I looked up at her. "Yeah, what's up?"

"Well ... I-I just wanted to ask you something, but it's really k-kind of embarrassing to ask since your a boy, so I, um ...I needed to know if you could call your sister for m-me," the orange haired girl stuttered out. The blush on her face had me wondering exactly what it was that was so embarrassing.

"Um, sure. What is it that you need to ask her, because unless it's important I can't really disturb her while she's at work during this hour unless it's an emergency."

"Oh," she started shifting her weight from foot to foot in a nervous fashion, as she looked down at the floor. "Y-you see I-I sorta ...kinda need to buy s-some ...um, girl things."

I raised an eyebrow. "Girl thing?" I was clueless for a moment, then it hit me exactly what she was trying to say. "Ohhh you mean like pads and stuff."

"Hauuu~!" Rena's blush deepened. Maybe I shouldn't have voice that.

"Right, right. So we can get those while we're out," I said. "Kim keeps a card around for emergencies and this is an emergency, so it should be okay, just get what you need and let me handle the rest."

Rena looked up at me and gave me a small smile. "T-thank you, Kevin."

"No need to thank me, Rena." I stood up and pat her on the head, "it's what I'm here for, until you get home it's my job to make sure you guys are comfortable. I'd be a bad host if I didn't at least do that much."

Ant' came rushing down the stairs at that moment. "So, we heading out or not? And nothing too expensive, okay. I ain't gonna run out of half my bread in one day."

"What bread?" Hanyu asked, with a confused look on her face. "You don't have any bread."

I chuckled. "No, not that type of bread. He means money, it's a slang term we use around, rather they use it anywhere else is anyone's guess."

"Oh, I see."

Before we left I went into the kitchen and took the emergency debt card off the top of the refrigerator. with that being done, we made our way out of the house and into the sunlight. It was a great day outside, it was too bad it was suppose to rain tonight and tomorrow.

* * *

><p>And that's it for this chapter, I can't tell you how go it is to get finished a chapter. Over four-thousand words and I didn't even notice, almost. I'll be back with the next chapter soon!<p>

Peace!


	18. Chapter 17: One Of Those Bands pt 1

Hello readers! Here's the next installment, been pretty busy these past couple of days, mostly watching anime! But, hey, it keeps my mind buzzing with ideas for my stories! Anyway, enjoy~!

* * *

><p>Chapter 17: One Of Those Bands pt 1<p>

Today was August tenth, and though it was far from it, I personally felt that it was one of the best days that we've had this summer. It wasn't too hot, the sun was shinning, and the few clouds in the sky added to the nice breeze coming through the front window.

We didn't have much else to do for the rest of the afternoon since we had just come in from the park. It was small, sure. But it was rather nice and clean, with a picnic area, finding a neighborhood park like that was hard to come by in Philly; it was thanks to the good people who lived around here that the park was kept free of as much graffiti and trash as possible.

So, for the mean time, we just sat back, relaxed and watched a movie.

The movie was an animated movie called _Grave Of Fireflies_, it wasn't the best movie ever made, but regardless, it was a favorite of mine.

"Hau~ that's so unfair, unfair," Rena said quietly, from beside my little brother.

"Yeah, why is their aunt treating them so mean?"

I shrugged at Hanyu and Rena. I didn't really agree with how the aunt acted towards her niece and nephew on the movie, but in a way, I could understand why. Being in the middle of war changes people, not just the soldiers who fight, but the citizens as well.

"Well, if it was me, I would've taken being treated unfairly over starving any day," Ant' said. I looked past Rena and gave him a look.

"You know, that is pretty easy for you to say, considering you've never been in that type of situation," I mused. "Don't you think, little bro?"

Rika looked over at Ant' as well, and nodded. "Mii~ He's right, what makes you think that you wouldn't have done the same thing."

"Um ...let's see, for one." Antoine had a thoughtful expression on his face, twirling one of his dreads around his index finger. He did this sometimes when he was thinking hard about something. "If I had a little sister to take care of, I'd think of her first, not saying that Seita didn't. But it was a stupid thing to leave, and even after Setsuko started getting hungry and sickly, he still didn't suck up his pride and go back like the doctor told him," Ant' said in a serious tone. "He wanted to help his sister, I get that. But, he'd rather steal and get caught ...beatin' up one time, rather then go back to where they had food, shelter and clean clothes."

When I thought about it, in a way, Ant' was kinda right. "I ...can sorta see where you're coming from," I uttered. What he said made sense to me.

"I can't really say that I agree with you, Antoine," Rika said. I looked over at her, wondering why she would have a problem with Ant's reasoning. It seemed pretty solid to me.

"And why not, I mean it looks obvious what he should have done while he had the chance."

"As true as that is, you are going more off of what's happening on screen, right?" The blue haired miko asked, talking in her mature persona. "But, what about what happens off screen, there's really no telling what their aunt said or even did to make them want to leave."

"Rika, I think we would have seen if there was any type of abuse from their aunt," I said.

"You didn't know about me and Hanyu liking chess until I told you, because it wasn't 'on screen', remember? And what about Satoko and Satoshi, their aunt and uncle abused them, but would you have know that if they didn't show it?"

I opened my mouth to say something, but couldn't find anything to counter the argument.

Alright, she had a point there. A lot of things don't get put on screen, I know that much is true. It's the same thing as asking what Goku's favorite food was, the guy eats everything, and on screen he calls every food he's about to eat his favorite.

"I guess I get what you're saying," Ant' replied, shrugging. "But either way, he should have put his sister first before making rash decisions like moving out to live in a bomb shelter of all places. He should've at least made a solid plan, gotten a job if needed."

Rika nodded. "I couldn't agree more."

And so the discussion ended, though somewhere towards the last few minutes of the movie, everyone of was feeling sadden that Setsuko had died and Seita had to be the one to bury her. The sad music wasn't helping much, either.

"Hau~ that's so sad, why she have to die," Rena uttered sadly.

As for Hanyu ...well, she was actually crying. Much like I did when I first saw this movie with my sister, only my crying was more silent.

"Auauau ...p-poor Setsuko! Poor Seita!" Hanyu sniffled. She was literally close to crying her eyes out, wiping her tears with her shirt sleeve.

"Awe come on, Hanyu, don't cry," Ant' said, trying to cheer her up. "It's just a movie. A sad movie, but still just a movie."

A felt a tug on my shirt and looked over, seeing that it was Rika. "Next time, maybe you should pick something with a little more of a happy ending," she said, glancing over at the crying goddess.

I sighed, giving her a nod. "I'm planning on it, believe me."

It was at that moment that my cellphone started playing the set ring tone in my pants pocket. The song was Connect, the opening of _Puella Magi_ _Madoka Magica__._

_Kawashita yakusoku wasurenai yo  
>Me o toji tashikameru<br>Oshiyoseta yami furiharatte susumu yo,_

_Itsu ni nattara nakushita mirai o  
>Watashi koko de mata miru koto dekiru no? <em>

I took the phone out and pushed the talk button, putting the red _BlackBerry_ up to my ear. "Moshi moshi, Kevin desu~!"

"Dude, how much anime have you been watching, seriously?" A voice laughed on the other end; it was my good friend, Carlos.

"Yo what's up, Carlos, longtime no hear, man."

"Yeah I know, sorry I couldn't keep in touch, but me and the guys are having a huge breakthrough right now. But, we need your help."

I was about to ask what they needed help with, until Ant' came and interrupted me, yelling into the phone. "Hey, Carlos, what's up! How's the band!" He hollered into my occupied ear. I quickly pushed him away and glared at him.

"Don't do that! I'm on the phone! And it's rude!"

Antoine pouted and sat back on the couch. "Alright, damn, I just wanted to say hi."

I rolled my eyes at him, then turned my attention back to the speaker on the phone. This was typical Antoine behavior. "Anyway, what did you need?"

"Well, I'm not gonna beat around the bush, here. You know me, Nick and Anthony don't have the best voices. So ...we need you to sing with us in our gig next week."

Wait, what? "Hold on, you want me to sing? What's up with Jino, ask him to do it."

"We did, he said he didn't have time to, I quote, ''act out _The Beetles_'' with us. Come on, man, your the last one we've got, so unless you have someone else who can sing better then you, what's the problem?"

"I don't know ...I." I thought long and hard about my answer. Sure, I wanted to help Carlos out with his band, he was my friend, but singing in front of your friends was way different then singing in front of a whole crowd of strangers. And it made me nervous as hell just thinking about it. Stage fright was one of my worse enemies.

I was about to decline to help, when I felt a small tap on my shoulder. I looked over and saw that it was my little brother.

"Yeah?"

"You know you have a problem with talking in front of crowds, right," Ant' stated. As if I needed him to remind me.

I gave him a blink expression, still holding the phone up to my ear. "I don't need you telling me what I already know, Ant'," I muttered. I felt bad enough that I was about to leave my friend hanging when he needed me. Antoine didn't have to rub it in.

"Whoa! I'm not trying to tease you or anything," Ant' said, smiling at me. "I'm was just gonna say that if you have a problem with singing on stage, you can always ask someone else to do it."

"And who did you have in mind. We don't exactly know a lot of singers to call up for this."

"Yeah, that true, but we do know one singer who's voice could match even the best female rocker's," He whispered to me, before pointing to the one girl who could sing her heart out with the best of them. I starred over at her, then a small grin made it's way onto my face.

Rika looked over at us, and blinked. "Why are you both starring at me?"

I didn't answer her, and instead talked to Carlos. "Yeah, look, _amigo_. I can't sing for you at your show, you know I have a thing with crowd starring at me."

"Awe come on, dude-!"

"But!" I interrupted him, "I do know someone who can sing even better then me, she might be willing to help."

"She …? Who's the girl?"

"You'll have to wait and see," I said, standing up from my seat. "Where are you guy at right now?"

"At the spot we usually practice at down the street from my house."

"Alright, I'll see you there, Carlos."

I heard him sigh through the other end. " ...Fine, just make sure she doesn't suck, okay?"

"Trust me, she's far from that," I said. "See you there."

"Bye, man."

Then I hung up the phone. Putting my phone in my pocket, I turned to the others, who were still sitting on the couch. "Rika, You up for a little walk, or no?"

"Um ...sure, sir," Rika nodded, smiling. "Where are we going?"

"You see, we're going to see a couple of my friends." I started walking over to the front door, and Rika got off the couch and followed. "One of them is Carlos, the one I told you and Hanyu about, remember?"

"The one from the store?"

"Yep, that's him. It looks like he may need a bit of help, and you seem to be the best one for the job," I told her. "If you're willing to help, that is."

She thought on it for a moment, then nodded. "Mii~ I don't see why I can't help your friend out, Kevin. He seemed nice when we saw him."

I smiled. "Good, well let's get going, they're waiting for us right now." I looked over at the other three on the couch and said. "We'll be back in a half hour. Ant', you're the man of the house while I'm gone. Also, put the jerk chicken on while I'm out."

Ant' gave a two finger salute, grinning. "Sure thing, put the oven on three-fifty, right?"

"Yeah. See you guys in a few."

"Hau~ be safe you two," Rena said.

I nodded, then me and Rika left out the door towards where my friends were having band practice.

**~ ~(XXX)~ ~**

It took us only a good ten minutes of walking to make it to 'The Spot' as Carlos loved to call it. The spot was actually a two story storage building that Carlos' parents had brought a few years back; when I used to be part of the band, before I started focusing more on my cooking skills and school, we played here all the time, practicing guitar, or in my case, mostly vocals.

The band used to have four people, including myself, now there were only three members left. But, I still came by to check and see how things were going with the guys from time to time.

From the sound of the bass guitar and rhythmic drumming, it was easy to tell that they were still in the middle of practice.

"Mii~ they sound good, better then I expected," Rika remarked, standing next to me at the door. She then looked up at me. "How long have they been doing this?"

"A few years, give or take." I answered, as I put my finger up to the door bell. "Though, even if they're good, they are not at their best, yet. For now it practice, practice, practice." Then I pushed my finger down.

There was a loud buzzing noise, that was the one thing I hated about the storage building. I was hoping that they had gotten the bell changed. It was annoying to be in the middle of your stride, only to be thrown off key by the bell's buzzing.

The instruments stopped almost at the same time, then the sound of footsteps as Carlos voice came through the door. "Alright, guys, take five." The sound of the chain lock being taken off was heard, then a moment later, the Hispanic guitar player was standing in the door way with a smile on his face. "Kevin, what's good, bro!"

I smiled as we shook hands and did our usual bro-hug, before pulling away. "Nothing much, same old shit."

He grinned. "Just a different day, right?"

"You know it."

"Well, come on in, don't want you standing in the door way all day, now." He stepped to the side as me and Rika walked into the building. Everything mostly looked exactly how it was when I'd last been here, aside from the few new boxes that were next to the wall in the corner. Carlos closed and locked the door, then lead us over to the next room across from the staircase leading to the second floor.

In the room were my two other friends, Nick and Anthony.

Nick was a pretty short guy with dark brown skin and dark brown eyes. He stood at around five foot six with an small Afro style haircut and had a mustache on his face that had been there since we were in our last years of middle school. Anthony, or Tony, as we usually called him, was a average height of five foot nine inches. He had slightly tanned skin and wore an Mordecai and Rigby _Regular Show_ baseball cap over his shaggy blonde hair.

I walked in with a smile and waved. "Nick, Tony. It's good to see you guys again!"

"I know, right!"

"Yeah, it been too long since you came here!"

The two met me half way and we shook hands and bro-hugged. When we split up I took in the setup of the room itself; the room wasn't big in any way but there was enough space to fit in their band stuff, there were posters of different bands on the walls where their instruments were set up with a sound system and amplifier for the guitars. It was cold in here, but given we just came from walking in the heat, it was welcome.

"Soo, from what you said on the phone," Carlos started, walking over to the rest of us. "You said you had a singer for us," he said, before pointing down at the blue haired little girl. "That wouldn't happen to be this kid you brought with you, would it?"

"Um, yeah." I smiled and began introducing Rika to everyone. "Boys, this is Rika, she's one of the girls who staying at my house for the time being."

"Mii~ it's nice to meet you all, sirs," Rika greeted with a big smile on her face. "Kevin told me a lot about you."

"Awe~ she's a cute one, isn't she, Nick," Anthony said, chuckling at her.

Nick shrugged. "I guess ...but there is only one question," he said in a serious tone. "Can she really sing? Or were you just exaggerating when you said she was better then you?"

"Oh ...you heard that, huh?"

"I had the phone on speaker so they could hear," Carlos said. He strolled over to his guitar and picked it up off the stand, throwing the strap over his shoulder. He strummed it a few times, then looked over in me and Rika's direction. "If you can sing. You are gonna have to prove it, little lady."

Rika just blinked at him. "You mean I have to sing, like right now?"

"Of course." Nick said, as him and Anthony walked over to their respective instruments, picking them up to play. "We're not going to just go off of Kevin's word, not that we don't trust him or anything. But, he's the best singer we know, and if you can sing better then him, then we want to see for ourselves."

"Mii~ ...but, I'm not that good."

"It's good to be humble, kid. But, we'll be the judge of your skills, though," Anthony said, sitting behind his drums, taking up his drumsticks. "Now come on up here, we wanna see what you're made of."

Rika gave a sigh, looking up at me. "Do I have to sing …?"

I couldn't help but smile at her, this was the first time I've ever seen Rika get nervous about anything. She always seemed so confident in everything that she did, even when Hanyu got embarrassed in her place. "Rika, you've got a great voice. You should show it off, trust me, you will do alright."

The blue haired miko huffed, puffing out her cheeks. Why did she have to be so damn cute all the time? "Fine, but if they tease me, I'm blaming you."

"They won't, I promise." I said, before giving her a playful shove towards the makeshift stage. "Now go up there and show em' what ya got!"

She walked up onto the stage and Anthony passed a microphone to her. "So, Rika, are there any covers you wanna sing?" He asked while he handed it to her.

"Mii~ what's a cover …?"

"It's song that you sing that was made by someone else," Nick answered. He stuck his black-power fist pick into the back of his Afro before he continued. "Are there any you want to sing? Just make sure we know how to play it, though."

"A song I want to sing ...let's see, um," Rika took a moment to think on it. Then she gave her song of choice, which was one of the songs she had listened to on my MP3 player recently. "Do you know '_World So Cold_'?"

"By_ Three Days Grace_," Anthony asked. Rika nodded.

Carlos held his guitar in both hands and shrugged. "I guess we can play that, always did love their bass player ...alright, let's see what you got, kid." he said, before looking over at the Afro styling member of the group. "Nick, give the count down."

"Right~!" Nick exclaimed, clanking his drumsticks together a moment later. "One, two! One, two, three, four!"

Then they started playing the beginning instrumental of the song, it wasn't great but it was good enough, all that was left for Rika to do was vocals. She sighed, taking a deep breath, then at the right moment, she started singing.

_I never thought __I'd feel this,_  
><em> Guilty and I'm <em>_Broken down inside,_  
><em> Living with myself<em>,  
><em> Nothing but lies<em>

_ I always thought __I'd make it_,  
><em> But never knew I'd <em>_Let it get so bad,_  
><em> Living with myself<em>  
><em> Is all I have<em>

_ I feel numb,_  
><em> I can't come to life <em>_I feel like_  
><em> I'm frozen in time<em>

_ Living in a __World so cold_,  
><em> Wasting away,<em>  
><em> Living in a shell <em>_With no soul_,  
><em> Since you've gone away,<em>  
><em> Living in a world so cold<em>  
><em> Counting the days,<em>  
><em> Since you've gone away<em>  
><em> You've gone away<em>

The expression of surprise on their faces was priceless, and I'm pretty sure Rika would be thinking the same thing if she wasn't facing in my direction. There was just something about her voice, she could easily be a singer if she want to. This made my mind go back to the character song _Rinne No Hate Ni_, if that wasn't proof that Rika could rock out, I didn't what song was.

_I'm too young, to lose my soul_  
><em> I'm too young<em>,  
><em> To feel this old<em>  
><em> So long<em>,  
><em> I'm left behind<em>  
><em> I feel like <em>_I'm losing my mind_

_ Do you ever feel me_  
><em> Do you ever look <em>_Deep down inside,_  
><em> Staring at your life<em>  
><em> Paralyzed<em>

I tapped my feet and smiled, giving her a thumbs up. She beamed at me and kept singing. She was really doing great, better then the last few times I've heard her sing.

_Living in a __World so cold_  
><em> Wasting away,<em>  
><em> Living in a shell, <em>_With no soul_  
><em> Since you've gone away<em>  
><em> Living in a world so cold<em>  
><em> Counting the days<em>  
><em> Since you've gone away<em>  
><em> You've gone away<em>  
><em> From me<em>  
><em>I'm too young, I'm too young<br>_

The song only last for a little more then three minutes, after the last verse was done, the boys stopped playing and no one said a thing for a moment. Rika turned to the three a second later and grinned as she saw the expressions on their faces.

"Mii~ so ...how did I do?"

Carlos didn't say anything to her, he just took the guitar off his shoulder and marched over to me. "Alright man, be straight with me. Did you bring us some type of child star or something?" He asked, grabbing me by the shoulders. "Cause normal kids can't sing like that! And her voice sounded, you know, adultish a moment ago! What's up with that?"

"That, my friend, is called voice actors talent," I said with a grin on my face. "Rika's wants to be a voice actress when she gets older, plus she is really good at changing her voice."

"For a kid she sure has a lot of talent, I'll give you that," Tony said, smirking. He then looked over at the blue haired girl and gave her a thumbs up. "You've got quite the voice there, Rika. Talk about potential, huh, Nick?"

"No shit, she surprised the hell outta me." Nick then took his pick and started picking out his Afro, it was something he did subconsciously since he been doing it for so long. "So, kid, I think everyone here has already decided. You wanna sing with us at our gig next week?" He asked her.

"Yeah, we could really use the help," Carlos added. Rather then letting go of me fully, he turned around my neck and held me in a playful headlock. "And who knows, you might make a few fans, blue bird."

Rika raised an eyebrow at what she'd just been called. "Blue bird …?"

"Well, the name sorta fits. Blue hair, great voice, I think blue bird is a good nick name. So what do you say, will you help us out at our show?"

"Mii~ ...I need some time to think about this," Rika answered.

Carlos sighed, most likely saddened by not getting the answer he wanted to hear, but he respected her wishes. "Alright, there's no rush. No rush at all, we still have a week left until the show. But can you at least give us an answer by Thursday? The gigs on Sunday, so, we need to practice so we don't suck."

"Sure thing, sir," Rika said with a smile.

Carlos nodded. "Okay then." He said, before he went over to the stage and started unhooking his things. "Anyway, we're done with practice for today and are about to head on home. You two can leave," he then turned his head to look over at us. "Nice vocals by the way, a little bit of practice and you'll be a pro."

"Thanks, sir~! See you soon!"

"Yeah, by guys," I said, giving the three a wave. They all waved back, then went back to cleaning up the wires and gather their instruments as we walked out the front door. It was a bit cooler then it was before, but not by much, though we did stop by a stand to get water ice.

Rika seemed to really be thinking this singing thing over, she even asked me for my opinion, but I just told her that it was up to her. If she wanted to sing at the show, she could sing, if not, Carlos would understand, he was the sorta 'ride the waves' type of guy.

Whatever happened, it was up to Rika. No one else could choose for her.

* * *

><p>So part one is done, and the next part will be coming out soon. Remember to review and if you have any ideas, feel free to live them with you're comments! Also, Three Days Grace rules~! Been listening to them since 2006!<p>

Peace~!


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